Consequences
by Advent of Shadows
Summary: Throwing caution to the wind always has consequences. Unfortunately, Naruto doesn't learn this until he is hurled 25 years backwards in time. Time Travel. Naruto/Mikoto. Rated M for later chapters. Spoilers up to Naruto chapter 535.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Summary: Throwing caution to the wind always has consequences. Unfortunately, Naruto doesn't learn this until he is hurled 25 years backwards in time. Time Travel. Spoilers to Chapter 535

Main Pairings: Naruto Uzumaki/Mikoto Uchiha and Minato Namikaze/Kushina Uzumaki

Warnings: This story is rated M for general reasons. I had intended on writing some lemons, but I've found that they don't fit into my plan very well. Thus, I have removed them from the plans completely.

Notes: This is essentially a rewrite of Second Chance.

Keep in mind that this is merely a 1k word long prologue. My prologues are always short. That's why I don't normally do them.

Oh yeah… this chapter begins a couple minutes after Naruto chapter 535. You'll be confused if you haven't read it.

On one last note, I'd like to post the stats for Second Chance as of right now:

Words: 40,573, Chapters: 16, Reviews: 505, Hits: 190,344, C2's: 66, Favs: 933, Alerts: 797

Needless to say, it's my most popular story. This one should surpass it though.

* * *

**Prologue**

With pure determination in his eyes, Naruto leapt from tree branch to tree branch.

Though he was not using the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode or Sage Mode at that time, he knew exactly where he needed to head to in order to get off of the island where he had been training with Killer Bee.

'I can't believe Granny Tsunade tried to keep me there.' Naruto thought as he glanced down at the note that he held in his left hand. It had been slipped under the metal plate of his forehead protector by Iruka after it had fallen off.

"I'll end this war myself." Naruto promised himself in a whisper.

"Will you, now?"

As soon as the foreign words were spoken, Naruto stopped himself and entered his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. The instant that he did, he sensed a malevolent chakra that Kisame's paled in comparison to.

Spinning around, Naruto spoke the name of the man before him. "Madara Uchiha." He involuntarily snarled the moment after he spoke the man's name. He saw the change in appearance. More specifically, he saw the Rinnegan in Madara's formerly covered eye.

"Oh, do you like it? I decided to take back what's mine." Madara said with a chuckle. "That's actually what I'm doing now. You contain my old pet, and I'd like it back."

"Fuck you." Naruto said as he dashed forward with the incredible speed that he possessed in that form.

Madara looked slightly amused at the attacking Naruto. That did not put the blond on guard as much as the spinning sharingan in Madara's eye.

In an instant, Naruto's chakra cloak dissipated and Madara held out a hand.

"Shinra Tensei"

'Shit!' Naruto thought, feeling the sudden lack of power in addition to the gravitational powers of the Rinnegan.

He flew back and slammed into a tree before he could process another thought.

As he slid to the branch under the spot that he impacted upon, Naruto heard Madara speak again.

"Really? What would possess you to use my pet's power against me? Weren't you aware that I could completely control it? Maybe you thought that I could only control it and not its power… oh well." Madara said with a nonchalant shrug. "I must thank you for getting out of whatever chakra isolation chamber you were in. I was incapable of finding you until about ten minutes ago. And now, I know where the Eight-Tails is also. It must be nice to know that you undermined the efforts of the entire shinobi world to protect you. It turns out that I won't even have to get involved in the war after all. All I have to do is go to the location where I first sensed you at, and I can get the Eight-Tails. Take comfort in the knowledge that you will live a little longer. I have to seal the Eight-Tails before the Nine-Tails, so you'll have five days left to live. No more… no less."

Naruto's eyes suddenly opened, revealing that they were yellow and shaped like the eyes of a toad.

'I saw that in Zetsu's recording. That's Sage Mode.' Madara thought.

In a matter of seconds, Naruto had a Rasenshuriken in his hand and threw it at Madara.

Madara's eyes narrowed a fraction as he saw the attack. He knew what it could do. Thus, he simple used Shinra Tensei to dissipate the Rasenshuriken.

"So, you're still going to try to fight." Madara said as Naruto dashed towards him with a hand held back.

Madara knew that he could not use Shinra Tensei on Naruto again at that moment. Nagato may have had a five second delay between uses, but Madara had only had the Rinnegan for a few days. As a result, Madara's delay was closer to fifteen seconds.

Madara was by no means defenseless though.

"I'll let you cool off." Madara said as he began to use his Space-Time Migration Technique.

The sensation of spinning in on himself had Naruto disoriented, but his determination to defeat the elder Uchiha was still present.

"I don't think so." Naruto said as he fought against the Uchiha's power with every fiber of his being.

Something unlocked within Naruto as he fought against the power that was trying to teleport him. The feeling of the power unlocking caused Naruto to close his eyes for a brief moment.

When he opened his eyes, Madara gasped in shock.

No longer were toad-like eyes in Naruto's eye sockets. Instead, his pupils were crimson with black shuriken-like emblems in them.

'That's Itachi's Mangekyo… but how?' Madara thought in shock.

"I won't give up!" Naruto yelled as the new power flowed threw him.

Naruto had never been a very intelligent person. If he had, he might have considered the possible consequences of using his own power, natural energy, and the new power within him to fight against Madara's power. The conflicting powers, combined with the fact that one of them was a space-time ninjutsu, could only spell trouble.

With the Rinnegan and Sharingan, Madara was able to tell that something bad was about to happen. Thus, he cut off his Space-Time Migration Technique and focused all of his efforts on becoming intangible.

Madara barely managed to do so before a massive explosion radiated from the exact spot where Naruto stood.

When the dust cleared, Madara found that he was standing in a crater that one of the large toad summons could have sat in comfortably.

Madara's eyes widened further as he regained tangibility and found that he could not sense Naruto anymore. He couldn't sense any trace of the Nine-Tails chakra either.

All that was left in the crater, other than Madara, was the metal plate of a Leaf forehead protector.

For the first time in many decades, Madara found that he had no idea what to make of the situation and even less of an idea as to what his next move should have been.

'I should have had Zetsu record this.' Madara thought as he teleported away. 'I was foolish to send him to watch the Eight-Tails.'

No one would ever learn what happened to Naruto… not in that timeline, at least.

* * *

Author's Note: For those of you that have not yet seen my last author's note of Second Chance and the notice on my profile, I'd like to make it clear that this will be my last project. I've decided to return to original fiction. I promised to do this story and would like to see it completed, so I will be doing this before I leave. It should take me a month to complete this story.


	2. Back to the Past

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, I'd pm every yaoi writer and tell them that if they don't stop that shit, I'd ask ffn to remove the Naruto category from the site. Since NaruSasu is the most popular section on the site, do you think I own Naruto?

Author's Note: Wow… just wow… this story has incredible stats so far, barring the complete lack of hits. That's an error though. It says I have 0 hits. Given that I have such high stats outside of that, it has to be an error.

Reviews: 48, Hits: 0, C2's: 26, Favs: 323, Alerts: 269

I'm absolutely giddy about the high number of reviews, especially for a 1k word long prologue.

Finally, I present to you, Chapter 1 of Consequences.

* * *

**1. Back to the Past**

His eyes opened to a cold, white room.

Gathering his senses, Naruto found that he was lying in a rather uncomfortable hospital bed, he was clad in a hospital gown, and he was inside one of the rooms of the Hidden Leaf Village's hospital, despite the fact that Pain had destroyed the hospital in his assault.

'Is this a genjutsu?' Naruto thought as he closed his eyes once again. He knew ways to deal with genjutsu, so it would not be too much of a problem, even if he was under the thrall of Madara's Sharingan.

He reached for the Nine-Tail's chakra, knowing that the switch to its chakra would break any genjutsu on him. After all, genjutsu affected the target's chakra. If they could draw upon a second source of chakra, it was practically useless against them.

Eyes widened as he felt a distinct lack of the Nine-Tail's chakra.

'Did Madara extract the Nine-Tails from me?' Naruto thought curiously. There was no way to completely prevent him from even sensing the fox's chakra. It was part of him… or it had been. 'How am I still alive, if he did?'

He had no intention of completely ruling out genjutsu though. The only two possibilities that jumped to mind were that he was under genjutsu or the Nine-Tails had been extracted. If the latter was true, then that meant that someone likely used a jutsu like Chiyo had used on Gaara after the One-Tail had been extracted from him.

He did not want to fathom the possibilities of Tsunade, Sakura, Shizune, or anyone else sacrificing their lives to bring him back.

Naruto bit down on his life immediately. He knew that he was very low on chakra, so he did not want to use any more than he needed to, and dispelling genjutsu was very chakra intensive for him. His control had never been good, after all.

When blood came from his lip, Naruto frowned. Nothing had changed.

'I guess there's only one more thing I need to do,' Naruto thought.

With that thought, he formed the ram hand sign and molded a very small amount of chakra. His new seal should have appeared the moment he had done that, but nothing happened.

Before Naruto could fathom what that meant, the door opened.

Naruto would not have been surprised if Tsunade, Shizune, Sakura, Kakashi, Iruka, or any of his friends had entered the room. The man who walked into the room threw Naruto for a loop that he had not expected.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was standing in the doorway, looking at Naruto with a pipe in his mouth.

'He looks younger than he was when he died. How is this possible?' Naruto wondered.

Memories of how others addressed him in Naruto's youth came to the blond at that very moment. "It is an honor to meet you, Third Lord Hokage."

Naruto did not even consider the possibility of the Hokage before him being an imposter or the effects of a genjutsu. He had no idea what was going on, but he was sure that it was the real man.

"It's always interesting when someone that I've never met is able to recognize me just by sight," Sarutobi said as he entered the room and shut the door. "I'm afraid that I'm not here to socialize though."

"Did I do something wrong?" Naruto asked, seeing that Sarutobi was starting to be very serious. He had a feeling that he was about to learn something important.

"Somehow, you entered my village without alerting anyone." That clearly meant the guards, ANBU, the Hyuga clan, and the Barrier Team, though Naruto only knew that because of his allegiance to the village. "Many people suspect that you are a spy."

"Not a very good one," Naruto said without missing a beat. "I'm clearly in _your_ hospital with only a tenth of my chakra, standing in front of the main hailed as _the God of Shinobi_. I absolutely must be a spy. Am I right?"

Sarutobi actually smiled in response to that. "One could argue that you hope to gain my trust."

"One could argue that you could have had my mind read while I was out of it," Naruto countered.

"One could argue that the entire shinobi world knows that I wouldn't do that," Sarutobi replied.

"I'm not going to argue about this," Naruto said. He really did not want to argue with the man that he considered his grandfather in his youth. "You can say I'm a spy and imprison me, or you can choose not to. Trust me when I saw I'd make a horrible spy though. I'm not that good at concealing my chakra, and I have even more chakra than most jonin. I'd stand out."

Sarutobi seemed to consider that. After a few minutes, he asked, "Did you say that you're only at ten percent of your chakra?" He sounded skeptical.

"That's right," Naruto said, nodding in agreement. "Actually, I'm probably closer to eight percent. I'm not that good with math. Never was."

"That's impossible," Sarutobi stated. "A sensor told me that you have half as much chakra as an average jonin right now."

"That sounds about right," Naruto said, nodding in agreement. His words only served to shock Sarutobi. "I'm not sure why my chakra's so low right now though. Must have been from that last fight…."

His _fight_ with Madara Uchiha came to mind when he said that.

"What's your name?" Sarutobi asked as he regained his calm.

"Oh, I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

Sarutobi nodded in response, not appearing surprised by the last name. "You were found in a jacket that bears the insignia for the Uzumaki clan. Am I to assume that you really are a member of the clan?"

Naruto let out a small laugh in response, shocking the Hokage. "To be honest, I never even knew there was an Uzumaki clan until just recently. I was orphaned the day I was born, and I just found out that my mother was a member of the Uzumaki clan."

An eyebrow was raised at that. "You didn't even know that there was an Uzumaki clan?"

A nod was received in reply to that question, though it seemed that it was not an acceptable answer.

"How can that be? The Uzumaki clan and the Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides were only destroyed ten years ago at the start of the Second Shinobi World War," Sarutobi said, looking at Naruto carefully. "How could you not know of a clan as famous as the Uzumaki clan? Where have you been? Hiding under a rock?"

'Nagato said the Second Shinobi World War was started by the Hidden Leaf Village. Maybe they started it after the Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides was destroyed,' Naruto thought. 'But if what he just told me is true, then I'm in the past. Is it even possible to travel back in time? And if it is, then I must be a year before the start of the Third Shinobi World War. Damn it… I need answers.'

He knew that he could not get them soon at all, though.

"Civilians don't talk about shinobi clans often. When they do, they talk about Uchiha or Hyuga, not Uzumaki," Naruto replied, careful not to lie. He knew that Hiruzen Sarutobi would spot a lie even faster than a Hyuga. "I'm only a ninja if a ninja is someone who uses ninjutsu." That was completely true. If he was in the past, then he certainly wouldn't be a Leaf ninja unless he attempted to join them. "Is it really that hard to believe I never heard of them?"

Sarutobi sighed upon hearing Naruto's words. He was unable to detect any lies, though he could see that there was more to the story than Naruto was revealing. That was to be expected though.

'He's a ninja if I ever saw one, but I believe that he's telling the truth about not being a formal ninja,' Sarutobi thought.

"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt in regards to your back-story," Sarutobi said with another sigh. "You must understand that your sudden appearance is still alarming though."

"How is that?" Naruto asked, curiosity piqued.

"Well, you appeared inside my village without alerting anyone, and then I find that you are a distant relative of the Senju clan of the Forest- the clan that my sensei was a part of. Furthermore, you are suffering from a mild case of chakra exhaustion and your body seems to have gone through a great level of strain lately. The medics actually ordered that you be watched over after your release."

Unlike Naruto, Sarutobi was capable of lying without arousing a hint of suspicion. The God of Shinobi could lie to an Uchiha and a Hyuga at the same time, all the while proclaiming that he was the Sage of Six Paths and could shatter mountains with a clicking of his tongue. He was simply that good.

"Oh, I see," Naruto said, clearly caught off guard.

"You will be released in an hour, actually," Sarutobi said, surprising Naruto once more. "I will arrange for a couple chunin to give you a tour of the village at that time. Once the tour is finished, you will be brought to my office to meet the chunin that I am assigning to watch over you. Hopefully, we will be able to figure out how you appeared in the village by the time you are at one hundred percent."

Naruto nodded slowly with a hint of reluctance in the motion. "What will happen when I am at one hundred percent and have figured out how I got here?"

Sarutobi walked towards the window of the hospital room before he answered the question. "If it is determined that you are not a spy and your answer is acceptable, you will be allowed to leave. If you wish, you may choose to join the village instead of leaving though. That is a moot point for the moment though. You should instead focus on recovering and figuring out how exactly you got here."

Naruto nodded in agreement. He wished to figure out how exactly he got there as well, though he doubted that it would be a simple answer in the end.

"I will take my leave now, Naruto Uzumaki," Sarutobi said, glancing back at the blond. "I will ask a nurse to bring you the clothes that you were found it. They appeared mostly undamaged when I last saw them. Make sure you are ready for your tour in one hour. My ninja do not like to be kept waiting."

Naruto mentally snorted at that last sentence. He was reminded of Kakashi at that moment. Kakashi had always kept everyone waiting, though his tardiness was normally over exaggerated. Naruto could only remember a handful of times that he was more than fifteen minutes late to anything, and those were never important events.

Nonetheless, Naruto nodded in understanding. He had never been the type to be late unless the event that he was being late to was something related to academics. He had loathed the Academy, so he didn't consider his tardiness and truancy to be anything of note.

"I will see you later." Sarutobi said as he turned and left the hospital room.

By the look on the Hokage's face, Naruto was capable of determining that he was confused. The prospect of the man called _the Professor_ being confused was quite hilarious to Naruto.

Once the door shut, Naruto exhaled in relief and thought back over everything that the Hokage had said.

'So… the Second Shinobi World War ended four years ago. That means that the Third Shinobi World War will begin in a year, Kakashi-sensei's father will commit suicide in three years, and I will be born in nine years. Wow… this is pretty fucked up,' Naruto thought.

Yes… Naruto would often use those last words to describe what had happened for years to come.


	3. Uzumaki

**2. Uzumaki**

Naruto was thankful for the hour between Hiruzen Sarutobi's departure and the arrival of the chunin that were to give him a tour.

When he had spoken with Sarutobi, Naruto had been disoriented from everything that had happened. If he had been told that he had seventeen children, he probably would have taken it in stride without a single worry.

That disorientation had worn off, though, and Naruto was trying to figure out what exactly was going on. He had never considered the possibility that time travel was real. Nonetheless, he was in the past.

Before Naruto could process that train of thoughts, two shinobi entered the room.

Naruto's eyes widened considerably as he recognized the two shinobi.

The first one was Shikaku Nara, and he looked just like Shikamaru had the last time Naruto saw him, even down to the attire. Unlike Shikamaru, Shikaku had a single scar on his face already though.

The second one was Inoichi Yamanaka, and he looked like a slightly older, male version of Ino. He wore a black forehead protector, a solid black outfit, light gray arm-guards that covered his forearms and the backs of his hands, and an open red vest.

"Are you Naruto Uzumaki?" Inoichi asked.

"Yeah, that's my name," Naruto replied, nodding in response unconsciously. "You're a Yamanaka, aren't you?"

Inoichi smiled at that question. "I suppose we do look rather distinctive, don't we?"

"Not as much as the Nara," Naruto remarked, looking towards Shikaku. He was mentally sweating at that moment. Shikaku was said to be the smartest man in the Hidden Leaf Village in Naruto's time. If anyone could figure out that something was truly unusual about Naruto, it was Shikaku.

"I just know you're going to be troublesome. Blonds always are." Shikaku said with a yawn. "We should introduce ourselves nonetheless though. I'm Shikaku Nara, the fifteenth heir of the Nara clan."

"And I'm Inoichi Yamanaka, the fifteenth heir of the Yamanaka clan," Inoichi said, ignoring his friend's earlier comment about blonds.

"It's nice to meet you guys," Naruto said as he rose to his meet. "I'm ready for this tour if you guys are."

"Let's go then," Inoichi said.

With that, Inoichi and Shikaku led Naruto out of his hospital room to begin his tour.

* * *

As it turned out, the tour was much needed. After all, the village had apparently changed greatly as a result of the Nine-Tails' attack on the village. The Uchiha clan's compound was located in a completely different place as well.

During the tour, Inoichi and Shikaku had been very serious and focused entirely on their mission, but Naruto saw an opportunity to change that as they were headed to the Hokage's office.

"Do you have any questions?" Inoichi asked.

"Not really," Naruto answered. "Is there any advice you'd like to offer?"

"Well, we should probably warn him about the noble clans," Shikaku said, lazily looking towards his friend.

"Aren't the noble clans common knowledge?" Inoichi asked.

"The Hidden Leaf Village has noble clans?" Naruto asked, honestly surprised. He had never heard of noble clans in the village.

"I guess they aren't common knowledge after all," Inoichi said, shaking his head. "The Hidden Leaf Village has four noble clans. These are Aburame, Akimichi, Hyuga, and Uchiha. Aburame and Akimichi are pretty easy to deal with. The former treats you fine unless you do something to give them a negative opinion of you. The latter treats you even better, provided that you don't call them fat. It's Hyuga and Uchiha that you really have to worry about."

'I guess I never heard of the noble clans because Itachi massacred his clan when I was seven. I doubt most people would want to talk about the noble clans too soon after one of them was killed to the child,' Naruto thought.

"The best advice you can take in regards to Hyuga is to avoid them when you can, never try to use stealth around one, never fight one using taijutsu, and be respectful," Shikaku said, thinking about the few Hyuga he actually knew on a personal level. "There's even less advice for Uchiha. Avoid them if you can, don't look them in the eyes, and don't let them see you use ninjutsu."

Naruto nodded in understanding at most of the things Shikaku said. He had fought Neji using taijutsu, and he knew the power of the Sharingan. He had no intention of reliving his past mistakes.

"Here we are," Inoichi said as they arrived in front of the door to the Hokage's office. "Good luck."

With that, Inoichi and Shikaku left Naruto alone, and the blond opened the door.

When Naruto saw what was inside the room, he nearly froze.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting behind his desk as expected, but a fourteen year old Kushina Uzumaki was sitting in a chair next to the desk as well.

Looking at the situation carefully, Naruto could understand why the Third Hokage would have Kushina Uzumaki there. Though he was not exactly the most intelligent person around, he could see something that was that obvious.

Kushina was the only Uzumaki in the village. Naruto was an Uzumaki.

'He definitely doesn't trust me,' Naruto thought. 'He's trying to make it look like I'm not being watched. After all, someone who appears to be a distant relative of mine could easily want to look after me.'

"You're just on time," Sarutobi said as he gestured towards Naruto. "Come in."

Kushina turned to look at him immediately, and Naruto was able to get a good look at her.

Though she was easily recognizable as a younger version of the woman Naruto met in his mindscape, she was dressed quite differently. She wore dark blue sandals, black stockings that went to her thighs, a dark blue skirt, a white kimono with dark blue trim, a wide dark blue obi, and a dark blue banded forehead protector.

"He can't be an Uzumaki," Kushina said immediately. "His hair isn't red. Everyone knows the Uzumaki clan has red hair."

"We did a blood test when he was out. He has the genetic markers of the Uzumaki clan. One of his parents probably had blond hair," Sarutobi responded without missing a beat. It was clear that he had expected such a reaction. "

Kushina frowned at that news. "Does he even know the Uzumaki clan's fuinjutsu?"

"No, I don't," Naruto answered, catching her attention once again. "I've only known that I was actually the son of a member of the Uzumaki clan for about a week. I do know some regular fuinjutsu."

"Fuinjutsu is a rare art," Sarutobi stated. "I'm surprised that you know how to use it. Are you sure you don't belong to a village?"

"I'm sure," Naruto said with a grin. "Hopefully I'll belong to this one before too long."

That seemed to surprise Sarutobi, though not in an unpleasant way. That was understandable though. If Naruto had as much chakra as he claimed, then he would be a rather valuable addition to the village. It was rare for someone to possess such an extraordinary amount of chakra, after all. Large pools of chakra did not make a man into a great shinobi though. Sakumo Hatake, like every member of his family, did not have much chakra. He was still the second strongest ninja in the village though.

"I won't press further for now," Sarutobi said, looking from Naruto to Kushina. "Now, I want to make it clear right now that you two will be living together for the next few months. Naturally, this decision has been made because you are both Uzumaki."

"Does she live in a large enough place for that?" Naruto asked, glancing at his mother.

"She was left a rather nice house by the village's last Uzumaki. I believe it is a three bedroom house, so you shouldn't have any problems living there for a little while," Sarutobi answered.

"Lord Hokage, don't I have a say in this?" Kushina asked. It was clear that she was not completely comfortable with the arrangement.

"Don't worry about it," Naruto said before Sarutobi could answer her. "You have nothing to worry about. I won't bother you any more than I have to, and I'm obviously going to be watched by ANBU."

Kushina's eyes widened at that and Sarutobi chuckled nervously.

"You're a clever one. Might I ask how you knew about the ANBU?" Sarutobi asked curiously.

"I'm a complete stranger to you. Why wouldn't the Hokage go to such lengths to protect his people?" Naruto asked.

Sarutobi merely nodded in agreement. "I won't require you two to stay together for anymore than three months, and ANBU will be watching Naruto the entire time. Is that satisfactory, Kushina?"

She nodded, though reluctantly. "I'm not sure about it, but I'll give it a shot."

"Thank you," Sarutobi said with a small smile. "And I'll answer the question you came here to ask now. _He_ will be back in the village in a couple months, unless their mission lasts longer than expected."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage," Kushina said with a radiant smile.

Confusion was clear on Naruto's face- an occurrence that would be quite common in the near future.


	4. Test of Skill

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto.

Author's Note: It was recently brought to my attention that people think I decided to make the four noble clans Aburame, Akimichi, Hyuga, and Uchiha. Well, unless my name is Masashi Kishimoto, then I didn't make that decision. That's a bit of information that was revealed in the First Databook. I just recently learned of it myself since the Databooks were only printed in Japanese. The main translator over at Narutopedia recently informed us of that tidbit of information.

And the reason that Choza was not with Inoichi and Shikaku was because he was out on a mission with his father. That's not actually relevent to the storyline though.

* * *

**3. Test of Skill**

Three months after awakening twenty-five years in the past, Naruto found himself walking towards the Hokage's office. The only escort he had was the squad of ANBU that stayed out of sight. He did not have to go into Sage Mode to sense them, but he knew that they were there.

He inwardly sighed as he thought about the lack of a proper escort there.

It was not as if he cared about having an escort. On the contrary, it was about Kushina's avoidance of him.

Naruto had originally thought that he would be able to become good friends with Kushina, which would have enabled him to get to know his mother better without her knowing who he really was. She had treated him coldly instead though. It seemed that he reminded her of her dead kin and did not wish to be around him.

Thus, he found himself being watched over by the ANBU more than her. In fact, there were some days when Kushina left before he woke up and did not return for a few days.

The only time he had asked about where she had gone to, she had said that she had gone to a friend's to get away from him.

He had not asked again.

'I still haven't seen dad,' Naruto thought sadly. He did not think Minato Namikaze would treat him as Kushina had done so far. His father was said to be a very nice person, after all.

Naruto knew that he could not think too much on meeting his father though. He had other matters that were of more pressing concern. After all, he was once again at full strength and had mostly figured out how he appeared in the past. He just had to explain it as best as he could to the Hokage and avoid revealing that he had been teleported through both time and space instead of just space.

It did not take the blond long to reach the Hokage's office. He knocked on the door as soon as he realized where he was.

"Come in," Sarutobi said from the other side.

When Naruto opened the door, he saw that the Hokage was by himself.

"Lord Hokage, I've come to become a ninja of your village," Naruto said, stepping through the door and shutting it.

"I see. Tell me now… do you know how you got here?" Sarutobi asked.

"I was fighting this masked man that had a special space-time ninjutsu. He tried to use his jutsu on me to get me out of the way, but I fought against it with all my strength. I'm guessing I used up most of my chakra fighting it," Naruto answered, looking the Hokage straight in the eyes.

"That's plausible," Sarutobi said carefully. He could tell that the blond was not lying to him, but a lie could only be told if Naruto believed someone other than he spoke. A man could say that two plus two equals thirty-five, and it would only be registered as a lie if the man believed differently. That was what made believing Naruto risky. "I'll permit you to fight one of my shinobi as a means of testing your ability. If you win, you'll become a chunin. If you lose, you'll become a genin. Regardless, you will be under a six month probation where you will not be allowed to do any missions above the rank of C."

Naruto reluctantly nodded in acceptance of those terms. "Who will I be fighting?"

"Is there anyone in particular you'd like to fight?" Sarutobi asked, though it was uncertain as to whether he would take the opinion under consideration or not.

"I've heard that Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin has an apprentice. Would I be allowed to fight him?" Naruto asked. He had seen his chance to meet his father, and he was hoping that the idea would appeal to the Hokage.

"I don't know about that," Sarutobi said as he lifted a file from his desk and opened it. "The boy you speak of is Minato Namikaze. He is among the most skilled chunin in the village. Do you really want to risk becoming a genin?"

"I won't lose," Naruto said with fierce determination in his eyes. "Please let me fight him."

Sarutobi closed the file and looked at Naruto carefully. "Are you aware that Minato Namikaze has become involved in a romantic relationship with Kushina Uzumaki in the past six months?"

"No, I didn't know that," Naruto replied. The look on his face revealed his surprise. "How does that concern me?"

"How do you suppose she will look at you if you manage to defeat him?" Sarutobi asked.

"I don't care," Naruto answered matter-of-factly. "She can hold a grudge against me as long as she wants. She's already started, so why should I try to stop her now?"

Sarutobi nodded after a few moments and said, "I will arrange this little fight. It will take place in one hour. Be at the front gates at that time. I'll show you to the training grounds from there."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage," Naruto said with a short bow.

On that note, their meeting ended with the Hokage arranging the fight and Naruto going to prepare.

* * *

An hour and fifteen minutes later, Naruto was at the Third Training Ground- the place where Kakashi had given him the Bell Test when he was twelve and when he was fifteen.

Standing off to the side was Hiruzen Sarutobi, Jiraiya, and Kushina.

Naruto's focus was on the blond in front of him though. Clad in blue sandals, blue pants, a mesh shirt, a white jacket with blue stripes down the sleeves, and a blue banded forehead protector was Minato Namikaze.

Only three months of being around his mother and the fathers of Team Ten allowed Naruto to appear indifferent in the presence of his father and his godfather. Still, it took every ounce of willpower he had not to run up to one of them and give them a hug, which would have freaked them out.

"Sarutobi-sensei, are you sure this is a good idea?" Jiraiya suddenly asked. "As I understand it, the rules permit them from using any jutsu, and the jutsu that Minato just completed during his last mission isn't something most people can defend against."

'He's already created the Rasengan? He's only fourteen!' Naruto thought in shock. There was no other jutsu that Jiraiya could be talking about. Of that he was certain.

"I want to fight him," Minato suddenly said, looking Naruto over carefully. "I can tell he's strong."

"Minato, you don't need to-" Kushina began.

"Yes, I do," Minato interjected. "Can't you sense it? His chakra… he had more than Jiraiya-sensei, and he's only two years older than us. I need to test myself."

"There's no way… he can't have more chakra than one of the Sannin…." Kushina said, looking from Naruto to Jiraiya.

"Can we start this, or are we going to have a talk off?" Naruto asked, feigning boredom.

"What's a talk off?" Minato asked inquisitively.

"No fucking clue," Naruto answered. "I figured you'd know. You're the one that's just talking to the people who are supposed to watch us."

"Begin then," Sarutobi said, catching Naruto's not-so-subtle hints.

The instant that Sarutobi spoke those words, Minato disappeared from sight.

Naruto quickly jumped back, barely dodging Minato's kick as he reappeared in front of the spot where Naruto had been standing.

"You're fast," Naruto commented.

Minato's eyes narrowed at that. He was more than a little surprised that Naruto had managed to dodge his attack. It appeared that his movements had been read, which was a first for Minato.

Curious as to whether it was a fluke, Minato channeled chakra into his legs and dashed towards Naruto with even greater speed than he had used before. When he neared the older blond, he threw a punch at his face.

When Naruto did not even both to move, Minato suspected that it had been a mere fluke earlier, but then Naruto's left arm formed a guard between them.

That did not stop Minato from attacking with his punch though.

Much to Minato's shock, Naruto was able to block the punch with his raised left arm and grab the younger blond's mesh shirt with his right hand.

Using Minato's hesitation to his advantage, Naruto used his left hand to grab Minato's right forearm. With a simple twist of his body, he threw Minato off of his feet and slammed him to the ground.

Seconds after Minato slammed into the ground, Naruto landed on top of him, driving his knee into the younger boy's stomach.

"How did he do that?" Kushina asked, catching Naruto's attention.

The momentary distraction allowed Minato to push Naruto off of him and roll away. Rising to his feet, his breathing was heavy.

"You know how to fight someone faster than you." There was no question in Minato's words. "I've never fought anyone who could do that. Blocking my punch with a single arm… that's insane."

Naruto smiled as he thought back to Rock Lee. He had learned that maneuver from the taijutsu specialist in his time. He could always trust Lee to figure out how to deal with a fast opponent.

"The way you slammed me to the ground… I've never met anyone your age that was that strong," Minato said as he finally caught his breath. "I'm not fighting you in taijutsu anymore. You're too dangerous in such a fight."

"Do you really want to do that? You know how much chakra I have," Naruto said, slightly uneasy about the thoughts of a ninjutsu battle. He already knew that most of his techniques were out of the question. It was not as if he could use the Rasengan, after all.

Without saying a word, Minato's hand flew to his shuriken pouch and snapped towards Naruto.

Three lightning charged shuriken flew at Naruto, who quickly defended with three wind enhanced shuriken.

'He's a wind type,' Minato noted as he saw the shuriken he threw fly away from Naruto. Naruto's shuriken had cut halfway through Minato's.

Minato's hands quickly formed the hand signs of boar, ram, snake, horse, and dragon before he thrust them forward, palms open. A torrent of lightning flowed from his hands towards Naruto.

'Shit! What am I supposed to do?' Naruto thought as his hands formed his signature hand sign.

Before the lightning could reach Naruto, twenty-five shadow clones appeared in front of the older blond, taking the full impact of the jutsu.

Seeing that his desperate gambit worked, Naruto withdrew a kunai from the holster behind his shuriken holster and threw it through the one of his clones.

Minato barely managed to dodge the speeding kunai, though it still cut his arm as a result of the wind chakra that it was coated in.

'He's good,' Minato thought. Another thought crossed his mind though. 'Where'd he go?' He had lost track of the original Naruto in his evasion of the kunai.

"This fight's over," Naruto said as he placed a kunai to Minato's throat.

Minato's eyes widened as he felt the blade touch his neck. 'How did he get behind me?'

"You certainly know how to use the Body Flicker Technique," Sarutobi commented. "It looks like this match really is over now. I declare Naruto Uzumaki as the winner."

"You should've used _that jutsu_," Jiraiya said, shaking his head. "I'll never live this down once Orochimaru finds out about this."

"Thanks for your concern, sensei," Minato said, rolling his eyes as he felt Naruto remove the kunai from his throat. Turning to face Naruto, he said, "You're pretty good. I hope we get to spar soon."

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Naruto said with a grin as he put his kunai up and offered a hand to his unknowing father.

Minato simply smiled and returned the gesture.

They were both unaware of the redhead glaring at them, though Sarutobi and Jiraiya were not.

"If you will come with me, I'll make your entry in the shinobi corps official and explain the probation that you will be placed on as a foreign trained shinobi," Sarutobi said, catching Naruto's attention.

With that, Naruto and Minato broke their handshake and the former followed Hiruzen Sarutobi away from the training grounds.


	5. War!

**4. War!**

'Have I really been here for a year already?' Naruto thought as he walked towards his apartment.

Memories of everything that had happened in his first year in the past rushed over him as those thoughts crossed his mind.

The first three months had been very unpleasant, of course. The reason behind that was quite obvious though. He had been living with Kushina for those first three months, and she had come to hate him because he reminded her of her dead kin.

'It's not pleasant knowing that your mother hates you for being alive instead of her parents,' Naruto thought sadly. He knew that she was unaware of their actual blood relation, but it did not lessen the hurt by much at all.

The six months after that had not been as hurtful, though it had been filled with events of mind-numbing boredom. He had only done three C-rank missions during that time, and the C-rank missions had always been done with Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza. From what he knew of their kids in his time, Naruto surmised that their purpose was to restrain him if he attempted to get away. Their clans excelled at that, after all. Still, he preferred the C-rank missions over the guard duty, fence painting, weed pulling, and garbage collecting. He had almost forgotten how horrible D-rank missions were.

'Thank the stars that Tora's not alive yet,' Naruto thought as the image of the Feudal Lord's wife's cat came to mind.

The last three months had been a great deal better though. With his probation at its end, Naruto had been allowed full access to the training grounds and ninja library, and he had been allowed to do C and B-ranked missions.

Naruto could not help but grin at the look on Sarutobi's face when he requested that Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza accompany him on every mission that he did. He mainly did it to fuck with the old man's mind, but he had to admit that they were all pleasant individuals, and he knew their abilities well from his time with their children in the future.

Still, he would never have claimed to be friends with them. They were hesitant to trust him completely still.

'They're different than they were in my time,' Naruto mused. 'I suppose the Third Shinobi World War, the Nine-Tails' attack, and having children changed them.'

Naruto was broken from his musing as he reached his apartment, which was coincidentally located in the same building as the apartment that he had lived in before the Hidden Leaf Village was destroyed in his time. He had been unable to obtain the same apartment though.

As he opened the door, his eyes narrowed. Someone was inside his apartment. Their chakra was faint, almost as if it were being suppressed. He had begun to learn to notice slight irregularities in chakra recently though. Given that his chakra was so strong and bountiful, an intruder's chakra stood out like a white slip of paper in a solid black room.

"Show yourself," Naruto said calmly as he formed the dog hand sign.

"Would you actually use a wind jutsu on me?" Jiraiya asked as he appeared in the middle of the apartment.

'Pervy Sage had some kind of technique that made him transparency,' Naruto remembered.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto took his hands apart from the hand sign and shook his head. "You're Minato's sensei, aren't you?"

"Minato's sensei? Is that what I'm being called now?" Jiraiya asked in feigned horror. "I am the great Sage of Mount Myoboku! Ladies cheer my name from the east to the west! I am the great Jiraiya!"

"Hmm… did you say something?" Naruto asked as he cleaned out his left ear with his pinky. He knew how to deal with Jiraiya, especially since he was used to the realization that he was still alive.

"You wound me so," Jiraiya said as he clutched his heart with his right hand.

"You have a message from the old geezer?" Naruto asked, not paying attention too closely to his words.

"I bet Sarutobi-sensei's going to love hearing that," Jiraiya countered.

Realizing what he said, Naruto frowned for a few seconds before he simply shrugged. "Perhaps I was talking about someone completely different. Regardless, you're the one who suggested that I was talking about the Hokage. I'll make sure to tell him you think he's an old geezer too."

Jiraiya busted up laughing at that. Once he calmed down, a grin was plastered upon his face. "You're good, Uzumaki. But yeah… Sarutobi-sensei asked me to inform you that he needs a private meeting with you. I was headed out to see Minato, so I figured I'd stop by your apartment to deliver the message first."

"I was wondering why one of the Sannin was delivering a message," Naruto said as he nodded his head in understanding. "How did you recognize that hand sign as the start of a wind jutsu though?"

Jiraiya laughed at that question. "Everyone knows that the dog hand sign is mainly used for wind jutsu. There's also the fact that Minato talks about how skilled you are with wind jutsu. I heard you've added a handful of wind jutsu to your arsenal in the last three months."

"That makes sense," Naruto said, careful so as to not confirm the rumors that Jiraiya had no doubt heard already. It would not do for him to have learned too much about Naruto's abilities yet. He had been careful not to reveal too many of his abilities to anyone.

In his time, Naruto's abilities had consisted of shadow clones, summoning, and Rasengan. It had made him a very predictable opponent- something that Naruto had realized early on in his time in the past. He had spent a large amount of time thinking as a result of his inability to do much of anything else, after all.

Shaking his head from those thoughts, he turned his back to Jiraiya. "I'm going to head to see Lord Hokage. Is there anything else you needed from me?"

"Well… I'd like to give you one piece of advice," Jiraiya said, catching Naruto's attention quite easily. "Don't overreact during your meeting with Sarutobi-sensei. You aren't going to like it, despite the fact that you're not in trouble of any kind."

Before Naruto could question Jiraiya's meaning, the Toad Sage formed the ram hand sign and disappeared in a flicker of wind.

Stepping through the door and shutting it, Naruto muttered, "At least he didn't leave leaves all over my apartment again."

He then used the Body Flicker Technique to appear inside of the Administration Building.

* * *

When Naruto reappeared in the Administration Building, he made sure to place himself on a different floor than the Hokage's office was located on. Appearing on the same floor had a tendency to make ANBU nervous, and nervous ANBU had a tendency to overreact.

It did not matter too much though. He was easily able to reach the Hokage's office after he appeared in the building.

After knocking and being granted entrance, Naruto found himself in the Hokage's office alone with the Third Hokage.

"Shut the door and take a seat," Sarutobi said, gesturing towards the chair across the desk from him. Once Naruto did as commanded, he said, "Are you familiar with the current situation among the Five Great Nations?"

"I believe so, Lord Hokage," Naruto replied. Seeing that more would be appreciated, he added, "The Land of Water just went through another civil war, and a young man was just named to the position of Fourth Mizukage. The Land of Lightning is still recovering from the Second Shinobi World War. The Land of Wind is in a panic after the Third Kazekage went missing a few months ago. And the Land of Earth seems to be on the verge of instigating another war."

Sarutobi nodded in agreement with those statements. "The last two are a rather big problem, which I will be addressing to the whole village tonight. The Hidden Sand Village and the Hidden Rock Village are now at war, and the war has already spilled into the border countries."

"We're allies with most of the border countries," Naruto said automatically. The only border country they were not allied with in that area was the Land of Rain.

"That's correct," Sarutobi said, pleased that Naruto had already seen what was about to happen.

"The Third Shinobi World War has begun, hasn't it?" Naruto asked.

Sarutobi allowed a grim smile to surface at that. "I'd like to say that it won't escalate into a war of that magnitude, but I can't honestly say it. Two of the five great shinobi villages have declared war on each other, and our allies have suffered casualties already. When I issue a declaration of war on Sand and Rock tonight, the Third Shinobi World War will truly begin."

"Why are you telling me this?" Naruto suddenly asked. "I'm just a chunin- one that isn't widely trusted, at that."

"Everyone who is of sufficient skill is being promoted," Sarutobi said with a serious look in his eyes. "The genin ready for the position of chunin will be announced tomorrow. The chunin ready for promotion, however, is being handled today."

That widened Naruto's eyes. "Are you promoting me?"

"Why else would I ask you here and tell you all that I have told you?" Sarutobi asked rhetorically. "But to make myself clear… you are being promoted, along with many others."

"So, I'm going to be a jonin?" Naruto asked. He could not believe that he was going to be a jonin after all the time that had passed.

"Not quite," Sarutobi said, stopping Naruto in his tracks. "You are being promoted to the rank of Special Jonin."

Jiraiya's advice suddenly flashed in Naruto's mind.

"You don't trust me," Naruto said immediately.

Sarutobi frowned, though he did not deny Naruto's accusation. "For the past year, I've had ANBU watch you-"

"You said that you wouldn't have me watched after my probation ended," Naruto said, clearly unhappy about the situation.

"It's common policy to have a foreigner with an unknown past watched for no less than a year by ANBU. Telling you that I called ANBU off after only nine months was intended to make sure you weren't a spy after all. If you had acted too strangely after that point, you would have been captured and brought to the Torture and Interrogation division of ANBU. You came up clear though," Sarutobi said with a sigh. "I don't like the situation anymore than you do, but you have not yet earned the trust of the village as a whole. If I tried to promote you to a full jonin right now, I would receive objections from my advisors, the elder shinobi of the village, the jonin commander, and the clan heads. While they cannot overrule my decisions, I do need unity in the village if we are to come out on top in this war."

Though Naruto did not like the fact that he was denied the promotion to jonin for such a reason, he found that he could not claim that Sarutobi was wrong in his decision.

"What am I supposed to specialize in?" Naruto asked after a few minutes of though. "Special Jonin are chunin with jonin level skills in an area that they specialize in, aren't they?"

Sarutobi looked pleased to hear the question since it signified much more than curiosity. "From what my ANBU have told me, your skills with wind jutsu are incredible. In fact, they claim that you can use no less than ten wind jutsu, one of which they've never heard of before."

Naruto looked away as he mentally cursed. It seemed that someone knew all about his skills after all. "That jutsu is one that I created."

Sarutobi nodded. It seemed that he had expected as much. "Your skill with wind jutsu has made you a valuable addition in the Land of Rivers."

"The Land of Rivers?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, the Land of Rivers is the country that the Village Hidden in the Valleys resides in," Sarutobi said with a nod of his head. "It sits between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, making it a key border country. It will be one of the most important fronts of the war, at least for a little while."

"What are the other important fronts?" Naruto asked curiously.

"The Land of Grass and the Land of the Waterfall are the other two most important fronts of the war at the moment," Sarutobi said, only casting a subtle glance of suspicion at the question. "The most important thing that you need to keep in mind is that you will be serving under Sakumo Hatake in our main camp in the Land of Rivers. There will be four smaller camps. Each smaller camp will consist of seventy-five shinobi, while the main camp will consist of two hundred shinobi. Similar but different arrangements will be set up in the other nations that we will have a shinobi force within."

"You're being awfully loose about details," Naruto noted.

Sarutobi smiled. "I'm placing a little trust in you, so don't complain."

"Ah, right… forgive me," Naruto said with a small smile.

"Details about the running of the camp will be explained when you arrive there," Sarutobi said as interlocked his fingers. "You, along with everyone else that receives notice that they will be taking part in the war, will leave the village two days from now at eight in the morning. The generals of each camp are leaving a day early though, so Sakumo will be waiting for you when you arrive."

'So, the White Fang is my commanding officer… that'll be interesting,' Naruto thought.

"Do you have any more questions?" Sarutobi asked.

Naruto thought for a moment before nodding. "Was anyone else promoted that I know?"

Sarutobi nodded slowly. "Kushina Uzumaki was offered yet another promotion to Special Jonin based on her fuinjutsu skills, but she rejected it again. I'll never understand her though." He let out a nervous chuckle when he saw that Naruto was unhappy to hear about the other Uzumaki. "Minato Namikaze, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, and Choza Akimichi were all promoted to jonin though." Sarutobi paused at that point, appearing to consider something. "If I recall correctly, you met Shibi Aburame on a mission last month. He just received the promotion to jonin as well."

* * *

All the way at the Third Training Ground, Jiraiya and Minato Namikaze could suddenly hear a scream, though it did not sound quite as loud as a normal scream.

"Must be the distance," Jiraiya mused aloud with a grin.

"What was that, Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato asked curiously.

Jiraiya looked at Minato at that point. "That was Naruto learning that someone he's already beaten now outranks him."

With that, Jiraiya busted up laughing, thinking about the look on the seventeen year old blond's face at the news. He wished that he could have stayed to see it, but Sarutobi had forbidden it.


	6. Deployment

**5. Deployment**

"It always surprises me when I see how empty your apartment is," Minato said as he entered the living room of Naruto's apartment. As he spoke, he gestured towards the blank walls and lack of decorations throughout the room.

"It shouldn't," Naruto said from the kitchen where he was eating his morning ramen. "Should I have pictures of my _wonderful_ time living at your girlfriend's house? Should I have pictures of my _amazing _six months of probation doing D-rank missions and the occasional?"

"Nope," Minato said with a smile that that promised he was going to burst Naruto's bubble. "You should have pictures of the last three months as a full ninja of the village. You should have pictures of all the times we've trained together. You should have decorations to make this feel like your home. You should make your place look like it's a home and not just some place you wouldn't mind leaving at the drop of a hat."

"Is that your personal opinion, or is it your professional opinion, _Jonin_ Namikaze?" Naruto asked, stressing the title.

"Both, _Very Special Jonin_ Uzumaki," Minato replied, keeping the same grin on his face the entire time.

Both burst out laughing at that point. They had a unique friendship.

"But seriously, I've come here for a reason," Minato said as his laughter reached an end. "I'm going to be one of your commanding officers in the Land of Rivers, so I've taken personal responsibility of getting you in some war-appropriate clothing. I mean… seriously, you're still wearing that orange jumpsuit that they found you in."

"No, I'm not," Naruto said, looking at the orange jacket hanging on the wall. "I paid to have more made. Good thing too since Inoichi threw the original one in the campfire one night."

Minato face palmed at that moment.

"You are screwed up," Minato said with a sigh. "But regardless, you won't be wearing orange when we leave tomorrow. General Hatake was very clear on that matter when he talked to me this morning."

"You spoke to Sakumo Hatake?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"You should address him by his title. After all, he is one of the four shinobi that are leading our village in the war on the various fronts that we'll be fighting on," Minato said with another sigh. "But enough of that. You're trying to distract me. We need to go and find you something suitable to wear. We'll be away from the village for the next six months, after all."

'Six months? The old man didn't tell me that,' Naruto thought.

"Fine, I'll come with you," Naruto said as he finished his ramen and deposited the cup in the trashcan. "Let's go." As he said the last part, he slipped on his sandals.

* * *

Two hours later, Naruto and Minato walked out of the clothing store. Both wore new attires.

Naruto had gotten blue sandals, blue pants, a blue shuriken holster and a blue kunai holster at his right thigh over bandages, a long sleeve blue shirt with the Uzumaki insignia on each shoulder, and blue fingerless gloves with metal guards on the backs of them. He had replaced his black banded forehead protector with a blue one was well. In short, Naruto look rather ordinary, though he had insisted on not getting a flak jacket until he was a full jonin.

Minato had gotten a modified version of what Naruto had. The only real difference was that his shirt did not have the whirlpool emblems on the shoulders, and the sleeves of the shirt appeared to have metal band around them, giving them a segmented look. Like Naruto, he had chosen not to get a flak jacket. His reasons for it remained unknown to Naruto though.

"Are you happy now?" Naruto asked, glancing at his friend.

"That depends… are you going to show me that jutsu you created?" Minato asked with a smile. He had been trying to get Naruto to show him the wind jutsu that he had created, but Naruto always claimed that it was too dangerous to use on anyone that he did not wish to kill.

"Sure, I'll show it to you," Naruto said with a grin. Once Minato appeared to get excited, he added, "I'm sure you'll see it when I use it in the war, after all."

Minato deflated at that point. "Don't make me kick you."

"Don't make me show you my secret finger jutsu again," Naruto countered, making Minato wince involuntarily at the memory of how Naruto ended one of their many spars.

"That's forbidden. I actually obtained a written statement by the Hokage that that technique is forbidden in spars of any kind," Minato said nervously.

"If I wait a few days, I can write it off as friendly fire," Naruto said, making a shiver run down his friend's spine.

"You sir, are a sick, twisted individual," Minato said before he picked up his pace.

Naruto just laughed in response.

Once Minato was too far ahead of him to notice anything, Naruto sighed.

Naruto was still trying to figure out a way to convince Minato to _teach_ him to use the Rasengan. All of his attempts to do so had ended in failure though. Minato did not want to teach it to anyone else yet, even with the offer of Naruto showing him all of his jutsu.

The biggest reason that it annoyed Naruto was because he wanted to be able to use the Rasengan again without anyone questioning how he could use it.

'I guess I'll have to wait,' Naruto thought sadly. Once he could use the Rasengan again, he would be able to use its upgraded form, the Wind Style: Rasengan. Though it was not as powerful as the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken, it would be a very useful jutsu to have in his arsenal.

For a moment, he imagined the look on Minato's face upon seeing Naruto use the Rasengan in conjunction with nature manipulation.

'I'll have to wait until I can see that one day,' Naruto thought with a hint of amusement.

* * *

The next day, Naruto found himself leaving his apartment building in his new clothes and with a simple backpack slung from his shoulders.

"Getting an early start, eh?" Minato asked as he appeared next to the older blond.

"It's a half hour until we're all supposed to meet at the front gates. I'm not exactly heading there that early," Naruto said without so much as a glance at his unknowing father.

'I doubt I'll ever get used to this. I know he's my father, but I just can't see him as the man who sealed the Nine-Tails inside of me and restored the seal after I went into my eight-tails form,' Naruto thought. 'He seems so… different.'

"'A shinobi does not arrive early. Nor does he arrive late. He arrives precisely when he means to.' Those are the words that my sensei passed on to me." Minato said with the ever-constant grin on his face. "Thus, you are starting out early."

"Your sensei only arrives 'right when he means to' because he peeps at the hot springs too much to actually be early," Naruto replied, rolling his eyes. "It's better to be twenty minutes early than one minute late. That's my belief."

"But what if you show up in the middle of a battalion of foreign ninja twenty minutes before they would have been gone from there?" Minato asked.

"Then I kill the battalion of foreign ninja. We earn medals in war for killing people, not for showing up after a battalion of enemies are out gone," Naruto said as he clasped a hand on Minato's shoulder. "You'll need to stay by my side if you want to see _that_ jutsu, so you might want to be early too."

Minato nodded with a smaller smile than normal. "I'll always have your back, even if my girlfriend seems to hate you."

"There is no 'seems' about it. She does hate me," Naruto said with a sigh.

"She's wrong about it to," Minato said, surprising Naruto. "I don't normally reveal the secrets of others, but this concerns you, so I'll make an exception." Minato took a deep breath before he continued. "She's told me that she hates you because she sees every one of her kin that died when the Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides fell every time she sees you. I won't deny that the deaths of her clansmen were tragic, but that happened quite a few years ago. It's not as if you were responsible for it either."

"You shouldn't put your relationship at risk just to stand up for me," Naruto said. "I don't blame her for hating me. I knew why she did all along too."

Minato nodded grimly. "Kushina doesn't like that we've become such close friends, but she has to accept it. I'm not the type of guy that would forsake a friend just because a girl says I should."

Naruto looked away before he allowed himself to smile. He was often reminded of the reasons that Minato Namikaze was admired by his peers. He was a kind person that held true to his beliefs with an unwavering will.

That, among many other things, stayed on Naruto's mind as they continued to the gates in order to wait for the scheduled time of deployment.

Thirty minutes later, approximately two thousand Leaf shinobi would leave the village, going to their assigned posts, leaving the remaining eight thousand Leaf shinobi in the village to do missions, act as reserves, and do other important things.


	7. The Land of Rivers

**6. The Land of Rivers**

It was around four in the afternoon of the third day of the war when Naruto reached Sakumo Hatake's camp. To the gratitude of the group that Naruto had traveled with, it had taken a little more than a day to reach the camp.

The trip had not been too horrible, or that was the belief that Naruto had come to, at least. Due to the fact that so many shinobi were going to the same spot in the Land of Rivers, they had divided into groups of ten and had staggered departures. That would have meant that there were twenty groups headed to Sakumo's base, but as it turned out, Sakumo had taken seventy of the two hundred shinobi to the base when he left the day after the Hokage made his declaration of war.

Ironically, Naruto had been placed in the same group as Minato and Kushina, along with seven chunin that he had never seen before. As tense as it was, Naruto could not deny that the trip had been relatively quiet.

Naruto took a deep breath as they reached the entrance of the camp. They were the last ones to reach camp, so nearly two hundred people were already there.

'A mass of tents inside a stone wall… that's all it is,' Naruto thought as he actually got a good look inside of it.

The camp was surrounded by a stone wall with four gaps- each at the four cardinal directions. If Naruto had to guess, he would have wagered that the wall was created by earth style ninjutsu. Inside the camp, about two hundred tents were set up, though there seemed to be a gap in the very center of the camp.

Even from that distance, Naruto was able to see a very large tent in the center of the camp. He was sure that it was Sakumo's tent. Though he had never been involved in a war before, Naruto remembered hearing something about camps like the one he was in. If he remembered it correctly, the commander of a camp like that would use his tent as a type of war planning chamber.

Judging by what he could see around that large tent, Naruto guessed that there was a tent set up for medics and a tent set up for dining.

Before he could think anymore on the matter, he heard someone speaking.

"Hey Kushina!"

Naruto's eyes quickly found the speaker- a woman a few years older than Naruto with raven hair tied back in a pony tail and onyx colored eyes. She wore black sandals, black pants with bandages around the lower half of her shins and around her right thigh, shuriken and kunai holsters at her right thigh, a short sleeved black shirt with a raised collar, bandages wrapped around her forearms, black fingerless gloves, and a black banded forehead protector. Though he could not see her back, he was sure she had the Uchiha's fan insignia upon it.

"Mikoto, it's great to see you!" Kushina said as she rushed past the group she traveled with and hugged the raven haired kunoichi.

Like the others that Naruto had seen thus far, Kushina had changed her wardrobe before they left the village as well. Kushina had taken to wearing an attire similar to her friend's, except her shirt was different. It appeared to be a normal long sleeve shirt for the most part, but the hem of the shirt went down a hand's length below her waist and it was multi-colored. It dark blue from the hem of the shirt up to the top of her breasts, while above that, along with the sleeves, was all black.

It was a bit ironic that Kushina, who recognized herself as the last of the Uzumaki, did not have her clan's insignia anywhere on her new attire, while Naruto did.

"That's Mikoto Uchiha, Kushina's best friend," Minato whispered as he stepped next to Naruto. His words were too low for any but a ninja standing within a foot of the speaker could hear. "Try not to verbally take out your aggression towards Kushina in front of her. The few times you've done it, I've ignored it since she deserved it. She doesn't have that tolerance though."

Instead of replying, Naruto turned to the chunin that were still behind them and said, "Report to General Hatake. We'll be along shortly."

As soon as his words were verbalized, the chunin strode passed them, glad to be able to finally arrive at their destination.

His words caught the attention of Kushina's friend too- something that was completely unintended.

"Minato, why are you letting a Special Jonin give orders to people put under your command?" Mikoto asked, breaking her hug with Kushina. It was hard to tell if she was teasing him or truly questioning his actions. "I was briefed about _this_ Special Jonin."

'She distrusts me, but I don't see hate in her eyes,' Naruto thought.

"Nice to see you too, Mikoto," Minato said with a blank expression on his face. The look in his eyes revealed his displeasure at her words. "Special Jonin Uzumaki is my direct subordinate, as authorized by General Hatake a couple days ago. If he gives an order, it has my authority behind it."

'And I thought it was tense between me and Kushina,' Naruto thought. That was not the only thought on his mind, however. 'He didn't tell me about this direct subordinate business. I can tell that he isn't lying thought.'

"General Hatake named him as your direct subordinate?" Mikoto asked in disbelief.

"That's correct; I did," Sakumo Hatake said from behind Mikoto. He was dressed in his modified jonin uniform with distinctive short, white sleeves and jagged red edges over his shirt's long sleeves. The tanto that he wore vertically could be seen at his back. "Greetings to you, Jonin Namikaze, Special Jonin Uzumaki, and Chunin Uzumaki."

"Greetings to you as well, sir," Minato said with a slight inclination of his head. "Jiraiya-sensei speaks well of you."

A smile found its way on the White Fang's face at that. "He speaks well of you too." He glanced at Naruto momentarily. "He seems impressed by your friend too."

"That's no surprise, General Hatake," Minato said as he looked at his friend. "Naruto is who he is."

"You are right about that," Sakumo agreed with an appraising eye turned towards Naruto. "You've no doubt been informed of your important at this camp."

It was clear to Naruto that it was not a question, so he simply nodded his head, signaling that he was paying attention to the man's words.

"That's good to hear," Sakumo said with clear honesty in his voice. "Once the fighting gets started, you'll be spending a lot of time at my side. Lord Hokage claims that you know more about wind jutsu than anyone else that I have here."

"We'll be fighting puppeteers and wind users," Naruto said thoughtfully. "At least we won't have to fight them at the same time."

"Of course we will have to fight them at the same time," Mikoto interrupted. "That's what war's like."

"Mikoto Uchiha, please refrain from arguing with the specialist, especially when he's correct," Sakumo said with a sigh. He could already see that she distrusted Naruto more than most people did. He suspected it had to do with her friendship with Kushina. "Puppeteers and wind users never fight alongside each other. It takes a single wind jutsu to destroy a handful of puppets, especially when most of the Sand's wind users channel their jutsu thrown folding iron fans."

Mikoto pursed her lips, displeased by the fact that her commanding officer had dismissed her words in favor of that of a special jonin.

"To make things clear, Special Jonin Naruto Uzumaki is to be treated as an equal to every jonin in the camp with me as the only exception. He can only issue orders to the men under Jonin Namikaze's command, but he is not to be ordered around by anyone except for myself or Jonin Namikaze. Those are my orders," Sakumo said, looking at Mikoto with steel in his eyes. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Sakumo meant every word. "Now that that is taken care of, I would like to see Special Jonin Uzumaki at my tent. Mikoto can show the rest of you to your tents. That is why I sent her to meet with you when the sensors detected you."

"Shouldn't she have shown the chunin that came with us to their tents then?" Minato asked, looking at his superior.

"Yes, she should have," Sakumo said, glancing at her. "I'll overlook the lapse of judgment this time though. I should have expected her to get distracted. Regardless, I pointed them in the right direction."

Seeing that things were getting tense again, Naruto said, "General Hatake, can we get a move on? You wished to speak to me, unless my memory's failing me."

Sakumo mentally thanked Naruto for an easy exit out of the tense situation. He could easily see that something was going on, but it was clearly none of his business. Staying would make it his business. Thus, it made sense to get out of there in a hurry.

"Follow me then," Sakumo said as he turned and walked away from the group, not even glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Naruto was following him.

* * *

The way to Sakumo's tent had showed Naruto that the camp was set up exactly like he had thought it was.

There were approximately two hundred small tents built around a one hundred yard wide imaginary circle. That circle made up the center of the camp, and it was composed of three large tents set up in a triangular formation.

As he made his way to Sakumo's tent, Naruto saw the medical tent to his right and the tent that was used as a mess hall to his left. Neither tent was as large as Sakumo's, which bore the kanji for fire at its front, similarly to the Administration Building in the Hidden Leaf Village.

The trip to Sakumo's tent was peaceful… right up until they were inside the tent and the canvas flap shut. As soon as that occurred, Sakumo spun around, drew his tanto, and brought it in a downward arc at Naruto's head.

Acting on instinct, Naruto drew a kunai from the kunai holster at his right thigh and parried Sakumo's blade as he hopped backward.

The canvas of the tent seemed to be blown outward as Sakumo's lightning charged tanto struck Naruto's wind enhanced kunai.

Naruto attempted to form the hand sign to use the Shadow Clone Jutsu- a feat that would not have been too difficult, even with a kunai still held in a reverse grip in his right hand. He found that he could not move at all though.

"Shadow Paralysis Jutsu… success,"

The voice of Shikaku Nara was clear, making Naruto frown further. He did not think he could break such a jutsu before the next attack came.

"You did as well as expected," Sakumo said as he cut the flow of chakra to his tanto and sheathed it, confusing Naruto even more. "I had to test you. Being able to draw a kunai and parry my blade that quickly is quite impressive. I daresay that you would have cut my tanto in half if I had not used chakra flow as well."

"You were just testing me?" Naruto asked in surprise. "But what would have happened if I had not blocked your attack in time?"

Sakumo smiled in response. "Your comrade assured me that you would not be injured, regardless of that. He says you can pull off a substitution or a body flicker at the drop of a hat. Isn't that right, Shikaku?"

"Yeah, that's right," Shikaku Nara said as he stepped out from behind a map stand. His hands were still in the rat hand sign. "I've seen him train with Minato."

"Can you please drop the jutsu? I'd rather not have to break it. It'll probably scare every sensor in the camp," Naruto said in annoyance. He was trying to regain his calm, but he was not pleased by the test at all. For a moment, he had thought that he was going to die.

"You can break the Shadow Paralysis Jutsu?" Shikaku asked in surprise. That was not an easy feat by any means.

'That Shadow Paralysis Jutsu… I think Shikamaru said that it was the predecessor of the Shadow Possession Jutsu,' Naruto thought. 'If I remember right, he said that it only paralyzed the target; it didn't make them imitate the user.'

"I have more chakra than you can imagine," Naruto said dryly. "I can produce ten times more chakra that you have without even suffering from chakra exhaustion. It would be like trying to hold a jinchuriki host."

Unseen to the blond, Sakumo's eyes narrowed at the reference to jinchuriki. That was not something that most people knew about. The only reason that Shikaku would have known about them was because the Nara clan's hiden jutsu was never to be used on them. Doing so would normally result in the jinchuriki getting angry and killing the Nara.

"General Hatake, should I release the jutsu?" Shikaku asked lazily.

"Yes, you may release the jutsu," Sakumo said as he stepped back a bit farther.

A single instant later, Naruto's kunai slashed forward in a quick arc, and he collapsed to his knees. The Shadow Paralysis Jutsu had forced his muscles to remain tense, so he been unable to stop himself from such an action.

With another smile, Sakumo said, "I think we're going to get along just fine." He then glanced at Shikaku and added, "Show him to his tent. He's probably tired, after all."

A few minutes later, Sakumo was alone in his tent, and a frown had made its way to his face.

His testing of Naruto had confirmed something that irritated him to no end.

'He's not a special jonin,' Sakumo thought as he shook his head. 'I can't believe Lord Hokage would give him such a half-assed promotion when it's clear that he's stronger than any of the new jonin. I swung my blade too fast for someone with chunin level taijutsu and ninja tool skills to defend against, and he did it purely out of instinct. The look on his face confirmed that. He deserves no less than the full title of jonin, and I'll be damned if he doesn't get it after we return to the village.'

From that day, Naruto had a new ally, despite the fact that he was unaware of the fact.


	8. The Eve of Battle

**7. The Eve of Battle**

A month had passed since Naruto had arrived at the main base in the Land of Rivers, and it had been mostly peaceful so far, which seemed to directly conflict with the very nature of the war that was going on.

'I don't think I can take much more of this,' Naruto thought as he stood at the gap in the western wall of the camp. Though he was pleased with the level of respect that Sakumo showed him in the past month, the dislike that his own mother still showed him was quite difficult to deal with. At least if they were fighting enemy shinobi, Naruto reflected, he would be able to get his mind onto other subjects.

Naruto glanced over his shoulder suddenly as he felt another chakra approaching him from behind.

The chakra was easily recognizable as that of Inoichi Yamanaka.

'So, it's happening after all,' Naruto thought.

Inoichi Yamanaka was the commanding officer of ten of his kin. They formed _Division One_, whose purpose was strictly sensing. They were stationed at the very edge of the camp near the walls, which allowed them to stay in the tents while keeping a close eye on absolutely everything around the camp. The enemy could not have snuck on them as a result of that.

The other nine captains of the camp were Shikaku Nara, Choza Akimichi, Minato Namikaze, Mikoto Uchiha, Shibi Aburame, Hiashi Hyuga, Hizashi Hyuga, Fugaku Uchiha, and Hamaki Mimura. Though all but the last four were new jonin, Sakumo seemed to have the utmost confidence in their abilities.

'I'm the only Special Jonin in the whole camp too,' Naruto thought with an inward sigh. Though it seemed completely irrelevant to the subject matter, it was not in all actuality. It was because of his promotion to special jonin when everyone else became full jonin that Naruto was viewed as inferior by many of the shinobi of the camp. Naturally, they followed Sakumo's orders closely though.

"What's the vice-captain of the Fourth Division doing all the way out here?" Inoichi asked in a tone that was clearly good natured.

"I should ask the same thing, Captain Yamanaka," Naruto answered with a small smile as he turned to face his comrade. Like Shikaku, Inoichi's attire had not changed since Naruto had first met him.

"None of that," Inoichi said with a dismissive hand gesture. "I'm here because General Hatake needs to speak with you. I'm sure you know why."

"Yeah, I think I know why," Naruto said with a sigh. "What will Division One be doing? You guys made it clear early on that Division One won't serve a combative role."

Inoichi nodded vigorously. "That's true; they won't take part in the fighting. That doesn't mean that they'll be sitting out the coming battle though. They'll be bringing the wounded from the battlefield back to the camp so that the few medics we have can treat them. Since I'm the only jonin among my division, I'll be fighting though."

Naruto did not look too surprised to hear that. After all, Sakumo had told him that Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza would not be acting as captains during battle. Their abilities when used in conjunction were too valuable to have them play roles as commanders. The titles of "captain" and "vice-captain" were intended as a way of keeping the camp organized more than anything.

"I better head that way then. General Hatake wouldn't ask me to come unless he wanted my expertise," Naruto said with a light smile on his face. Inside, he was laughing at his own words. He could not believe that he had become such an expert in a single field that the legendary White Fang wanted to hear his advice and opinions.

"You do that," Inoichi said with a nod of his head. "I'm supposed to round up the captains so they can be briefed."

With those words, they headed to do their tasks.

* * *

"You're just in time," Sakumo said as Naruto entered his tent.

It was the first time that Naruto had been in Sakumo's tent since the first day that he was in the camp, and he had to admit that it was different than it had been the first time. It had been mostly empty the first time, but it now had a large table in the center of it. A cot sat in the corner of the tent in addition to that, while there seemed to be a few bookshelves, map stands, and weapon stands lining the canvas walls of the structure.

"Division One sensed someone?" Naruto asked immediately.

Sakumo nodded his head with a blank expression on his face. "We have two hundred battle capable shinobi in this camp, excluding myself, the medical ninja, and Inoichi's subordinates. They have five hundred, and there's no way that we can get reinforcements from another camp before the attack begins."

Naruto had to admit that the news was grim, but he kept his cool, something that never would have happened before the past year. "We'll have to kick their asses without reinforcements then… sir," Naruto replied, barely remembering to add the respectful pronoun to his sentence.

"We are outnumbers five to two. Those are not good odds," Sakumo said with a raised eyebrow.

"We will suffer casualties," Naruto admitted sadly. He hated the thought of allowing any of his comrades to die. "We won't lose though. If I have to, I will fight them to a standstill myself."

Sakumo looked intrigued by that remark. "Would you care to explain how you would go about doing it?"

Seeing that Sakumo was not giving him an option, Naruto decided to explain his thoughts.

"I highly doubt that they're sending only puppeteers or only fan users," Naruto answered. "It seems more likely to me that they'll send a diverse crowd. When I was still recovering from my chakra exhaustion a year ago, I read a few books on the Second Shinobi World War. They focused on the battles between Leaf and Sand carefully, and I noticed that they preferred to attack in three waves. The first wave consisted of cannon fodder. While they aren't that big of a threat in themselves, they can weaken or kill some of their enemies, and they are expendable. Then, they would bring in puppet users. Because puppeteers can stay at a distance and don't get exhausted in their fights, they could wear their opposition down. And once the enemy was weakened enough, they'd pull back and let their wind users end it."

"That's an accurate description of their tactics. I suspect that they will use those tactics as well," Sakumo commented.

"I was never good at strategy, but I know how to counter that particular strategy. We'll need to take out their cannon fodder without over exhausting ourselves or taking casualties. I know how we can pull it off too. Once that's taken care of, we'll need to switch to ninjutsu specialists. If we destroy the second wave's puppets, we'll defeat them. A puppeteer is nothing without his puppet," Naruto continued. "Then, we'll have to deal with the wind users, which I have several strategies for. I'll need to get a good look at their capabilities before I can tell you which one would be the most effective though."

"You're very good at passing my tests," Sakumo said with a smile. "Shikaku suggested the exact same plan, though he wasn't specific on how to deal with the first wave and he completely left out the third wave since that's your specialty."

Naruto smiled, unsurprised by the fact that he had just been tested. "He's going to hate my plan for dealing with the first wave." He proceeded to reveal that particular plan, which caused Sakumo to laugh.

"You are very devious," Sakumo said. "I like that about you."

"That's nice to hear, General Hatake," Naruto said, glancing behind him as he sensed Inoichi's chakra approaching the tent.

Sakumo was aware of the approaching jonin immediately, and he could not help but inwardly sigh at their appearance. There was still one question he had not been able to ask Naruto, and that was in regards to how he would personally bring the battle to a standstill. It seemed that he would just have to be surprised though. That was not something Naruto would be comfortable talking about in front of anyone else, and Sakumo would have his hands busy planning things out.

"You can stay for this briefing. I'll need you at my side when the battle starts tomorrow, so it would be pointless to send you away," Sakumo said, gesturing to one of the corners of the tent.

Catching the hint that he could stay as long as he stayed out of the way, Naruto went over and stood in that corner.

Soon, Inoichi entered the tent with Shikaku and Choza following him.

'He really does look just like a younger version of Choji's dad,' Naruto thought. He was correct in that thought too. Choza even wore the same attire that he did in Naruto's time.

Minato and Mikoto entered the tent shortly after Shikaku and Choza. It was easy to see that things were still tense between them, especially when they saw that Naruto was present.

Shibi Aburame, Hiashi Hyuga, and Hizashi Hyuga entered the tent shortly after Minato and Mikoto.

It was still funny to Naruto that Shibi looked just like Shino had when he had last seen him, though Shibi's glasses were of a different style, he had a goatee already, and he had a gourd on his back for his insects. That was not as funny to Naruto as the fact that Hiashi and Hizashi looking identical to Neji the last time that he had seen him though. The only difference that Naruto could see was that Hiashi wore a black haori over his kimono.

Fugaku Uchiha and Hamaki Mimura entered the tent right after the Hyuga twins.

Naruto had seen pictures of Fugaku before since he was Sasuke's father and the last head of the Uchiha clan, and he had to say that the only difference between the man in the tent and the man that was killed in the Uchiha massacre, outside of age, was that his attire did not bear the symbols of the Leaf Police Force.

He barely glanced at Hamaki Mimura, who simply wore the normal jonin attire with a bandana style forehead protector. Naruto had not met the man in his time, and Minato had told him that the man was a first generation shinobi.

Once everyone was gathered in the tent, Sakumo spoke. His voice radiated through the room, making everyone focus entirely upon him.

"Within the past hour, Division One located enemy troops approaching from the west. It is predicted that a force of five hundred Sand ninja will be here within the next four to six hours. The war is about to truly begin."


	9. This is War!

**8. This is War!**

Nearly six hours had passed since Sakumo met with his direct subordinates in regards to the Sand ninja that were marching towards their camp, despite the fact that the Sand ninja had been estimated to show up two hours earlier.

'They're doing it on purpose,' Naruto thought as he stood a hundred yards away from the western entrance of the camp. He was standing alongside two hundred Leaf shinobi. Furthermore, Sakumo Hatake was standing to his left.

"I don't know how you do it," Naruto said under his breath. "We've been standing here for three hours, and you're still calm."

"This isn't my first war," Sakumo said with a hint of sadness in his voice. "You'll get used to it after a little while, unfortunately."

"I suppose so," Naruto said, nodding in agreement.

It was at that moment that everything changed. The sound of stone breaking filler the grasslands that the base was built on, and twenty dragons made of stone came barreling towards them as a hundred Sand ninja materialized an eighth of a mile away.

"What the hell?" Naruto cursed under his breath as his hands started to form hand signs.

"Calm down," Sakumo said, stopping him. "They hid themselves with a twenty-five layer genjutsu. It's pretty impressive. I saw through it just a little while ago. There's no need to get involved though."

"Body Expansion Jutsu," Choza bellowed as he dashed forward. In an instant, he grew more than ten times his own size and removed the bo staff that he kept at his back. With a few quick swings of his staff, he shattered the stone dragons.

"Why do you look so surprised? It was your plan to involve the Ino-Shika-Cho, after all," Sakumo said with a small smile.

"Oh shit… this isn't good," Choza muttered. Naturally, the mutterings of the massive Akimichi was clearly heard by his comrades.

It was at that moment that they saw that there were now two hundred Sand ninja on the field, and each one had launched a stone dragon.

'This doesn't match up with the strategies that Chiyo of the Hidden Sand preferred to employ. Jiraiya was adamant that she would be leading the forces against me though,' Sakumo thought worried.

"Wind Style: Wind Wall," Naruto said as his chakra flared with more force than any of the jonin in the army possessed. He thrust his hands forward, and the air in front of Choza, stretching all the way to the ends of Sakumo's forces, grew so dense that it was no longer clear.

The sound of thunder- but louder than any thunder that Sakumo ever heard- was heard moments later. All two hundred stone dragons had struck Naruto's defensive jutsu.

It took a matter of seconds for the wind wall to dissipate. When it did, they say crumbled stone making a line where the wall had stood.

Sakumo looked at Naruto in surprise, but the blond had dropped to one knee and was breathing heavily.

"How did you do that?" Sakumo asked. The question was mainly rhetorical, but he truly did not understand how the blond had managed it. The chakra needed for one person to create such a powerful defensive jutsu was hard to fathom.

Naruto's next words shocked Sakumo even more though. "Damn, that took away a quarter of my chakra. I've never tried it on that big of a scale before. I guess I can see how the creator of that jutsu died."

Sakumo could not ponder on those words for long though. The final genjutsu that had been hiding the rest of the Sand ninja had just been dispelled.

"General Hatake, that's more than five hundred," Inoichi said from Sakumo's other side with narrowed eyes.

Sakumo nodded in agreement. "Don't worry. They were clearly using genjutsu too strong for sensors to deal with well."

Inside, Sakumo was very worried. He had held confidence in the sensor's estimate, but he had forgotten that they were not skilled enough to get an accurate guess when the enemy was clearly able to use such powerful genjutsu.

What led to that point did not matter to Sakumo though. What mattered was the fact that his forces were now outnumbered by five to one instead of two and a half to one.

"They're about to charge us," Naruto said quietly.

Sakumo nodded his head as eight hundred Sand ninja began to head straight for them, running as fast as they could. Two hundred shinobi remained where they were standing, and they all had fans in their hands.

It was at that moment that Sakumo felt true fear for his subordinates, but he did not show it.

"Long ranged specialists to the front," Sakumo said just loud enough for his voice to reach his men. "Focus your attacks on the incoming enemies. When they're within a hundred yards, jump to the back. At that time, the close ranged specialists will engage the enemy. Once you get to the back, try to circle around and attack the enemy shinobi from the sides. Be careful not to strike where your allies are."

Murmurs of understanding were heard immediately.

Gripping the tanto at his back, Sakumo snapped his wrist forward and held his arm before him. His tanto was held firmly in his right hand. He began to raise it in the air when Naruto stopped him.

"I have an idea," Naruto quickly said. "Let me distract them."

"How?" Sakumo asked quietly.

"Trust me," Naruto said simply.

With a nod of his head, Sakumo lowered his sword, delaying the order for attack.

That was when Naruto dashed forward with chakra enhanced speed, shocking everyone.

Eight hundred Sand ninja stood right in the charging Naruto's path, but he did not even look worried.

No… instead, he formed his signature hand sign and created twenty clones.

'What in the hell is he thinking?' Mikoto thought. 'Twenty shadow clones won't do a damned thing."

The clones, along with the one who created them, ran right into the charging Sand ninja without even attempting to attack.

That was how the Battle of Blood Rivers began.

Upon being attacked by the Sand ninja, all twenty-one clones exploded into maelstroms of wind chakra.

"That worked pretty well, Naruto," Inoichi said as he looked behind Sakumo.

Sakumo glanced over his shoulder and saw the person that had been standing behind him for the past three hours. He wore a black hooded cloak.

Removing the cloak, the person shocked everyone around outside of Inoichi and Sakumo. It was Naruto Uzumaki.

"You took out a hundred of them with that attack," Inoichi said as he looked at the corpses that had been mutilated with wind chakra. He had felt their chakra signatures extinguish.

Naruto did not respond though. He simply removed his cloak and retook the spot next to Sakumo that his Wind Style Shadow Clone had stood at previously.

"That's the technique you wouldn't show me?" Minato asked quietly. He was vaguely aware that Sakumo was raising his tanto.

Naruto nodded as Sakumo yelled, "Attack!"

Roughly fifty fireballs, twenty-five blasts of water, fifteen earth spikes, ten blasts of lightning, and two blasts of wind were shot immediately.

Three more waves of such attacks were launched before the Sand ninja were within range, and their numbers had been reduced by a good three hundred since the battle had officially started.

With the Sand ninja within the correct range, the more long distance specialists of then Leaf used the Body Flicker Technique to appear at the back of the Leaf army.

As soon the long-ranged specialists were in the back of the army, the close-ranged specialists- which included about half of the long ranged specialists- charged forward.

A battle between armies of shinobi was not as exciting as one might think. When two shinobi fought, they used countless ninjutsu and genjutsu, along with engaging each other in taijutsu. When two armies of shinobi fought, they could not always use ninjutsu or genjutsu. It had a tendency to affect a wide range of people, which made friendly fire quite easy. As a result, most shinobi were limited to taijutsu.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the battle, it seemed, was the involvement of Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza.

Shikaku and Inoichi kept immobilizing opponents- the former with his Shadow Paralysis Jutsu and the latter with his Mind Destruction Jutsu. Once they were immobilized, Choza swung at them with his bo staff.

'That would hurt,' Sakumo thought as he saw Choza take out another dozen Sand ninja. A clicking sound broke his attention from Choza and turned it to his far right though.

'Shit!' Sakumo thought as he saw a puppet appear out of nowhere and launch a barrage of needles from its mouth. They were not aimed at him though.

Following the direction they were headed, Sakumo's eyes widened. They were headed straight at Kushina, who had her back turned. Another Sand ninja had gotten her turned around, and they were fighting.

Sakumo did not think he could warn her in time, but as it turned out, there was no need.

A flicker of leaves appeared directly behind Kushina, and Naruto appeared with his arms crossed in front of him. The stance made his intention clear.

'He's going to take the hit!' Sakumo thought. It did not make sense to him. After all, Kushina had shown her clear distaste for Naruto, and yet, he was willing to throw himself between a barrage of needles and her? It was not something that Sakumo had expected.

The needles slammed into Naruto's arms just as Kushina finished off the Sand ninja that she was fighting. She instantly turned around and saw Naruto drop to his knees with poisoned needles sticking out of his arms.

Her mind seemed to freeze at that, but that did not last for long.

Her eyes rose to the puppet, and anger could be seen in her eyes. Sakumo could tell that, despite the fact that he was not directly in front of her.

A small amount of foul red chakra seemed to surge around her, turning her eyes crimson. With speed that Sakumo doubted he could beat, Kushina disappeared.

She reappeared in front of the puppet and shattered it with a single punch.

Sakumo was no longer focused on Naruto though. He used the Body Flicker Technique to appear at the blond's side.

"Are you okay?" Sakumo asked, worried for the special jonin that he had gained respect for in the past month.

"I'll be fine," Naruto said lowly. In an instant, blue chakra exploded from his body, forcing the needles from his arms in a way that Sakumo had not expected.

"Don't use too much of your chakra," Sakumo warned. "Pure chakra can't heal the poison from those needles, and you're going to pass out if the poison spreads too fast."

Naruto gave the White Fang a feral grin as held his hands out before him. "I won't move around too much then."

The blond's chakra seemed to grow tenfold suddenly, and his hands began to flash through hand signs too fast for Sakumo to take note of them all.

"I lied earlier," Naruto confessed. "The Wind Style Shadow Clone Jutsu isn't my greatest creation. I wanted everyone to think it was so I didn't have to show this jutsu. But here it goes… Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu"

Everyone looked at Naruto at that moment. His chakra suddenly grew powerful enough to startle even Sakumo. His chakra was not the chakra of a special jonin. It was the chakra of a kage level shinobi. Sakumo knew that Naruto was not actually a kage level shinobi though.

'No… he just has the chakra of one,' Sakumo reflected.

The air began to spin around Naruto and Sakumo at that moment. All of the kage level chakra that Naruto had called forth had filled the air and seemed to be controlling it.

The wind continued to spin until it began to take shape.

Eventually, a dragon that appeared to be made of a flexible funnel of wind was surrounding the two shinobi.

"Don't get too close to it. It's my most powerful jutsu," Naruto said as he panted. "It will shred anything that it touches."

Sakumo had no doubts that Naruto was telling the truth.

As if Naruto's last words were a command, the dragon suddenly flew towards the enemies, untwisting from the protective funnel around Naruto.

Upon seeing the dragon, the Sand ninja attempted to regroup with the fan users that were still an eighth of a mile away from Sakumo's base. The wind dragon caught them with no difficulty though.

After Sakumo first saw the corpse of one of the Sand shinobi that was hit by the dragon, he almost emptied his stomach. Not even he was used to such sights.

The wind dragon was capable of completely shredding a human body. It did not actually destroy the body. It just made sure that every piece of the body was no longer or thicker than an inch.

The only Sand ninja left on the battlefield were the fan users and the few shinobi that did not flee upon seeing dragon.

"You can handle the rest, eh?" Naruto asked softly, feeling himself start to lose consciousness.

"Yeah, we can," Sakumo said. "You did good." The last words were spoken after Naruto collapsed to the ground completely. "Inoichi, take him to the medics. I'm ending this." Sakumo spoke the last words with a growl as lightning covered his blade.

Without hesitation, Inoichi appeared at Naruto's side and did as commanded.

"Let's go!"

With those words, Sakumo, Minato, Kushina, Mikoto, Hiashi, Hizashi, Choza, Shikaku, Tsume, and Fugaku pursued the fan users while the rest of the Leaf shinobi finished their fights with the Sand ninja that had not fled.

* * *

Author's Note: It seems that I keep getting reviews asking me to increase chapter length. Well, I have two options. One, I cave and increase the chapter length. Two, I say "Fuck it" and make the chapters how long I want them to be.

Sorry guys, option two it is. You can be grateful than I'm even continuing this story, or I could just do what I want to do. I'm sure most of you'd rather that I finish it.


	10. Aftermath

**9. Aftermath**

"Where am I?" Naruto murmured as his eyes opened to the inside of a canvas tent.

He attempted to sit up, but his body was sore and it moved sluggishly. Still, he moved his head around to get a good look at the tent that he was apparently in.

A quick survey of the tent confused Naruto further though.

He was lying on the table in the center of Sakumo Hatake's tent, though the mat of a cot had been placed under him for comfort.

"What in the hell's going on?" Naruto asked weakly as he tried to sit up again.

"Don't move around too much," Minato Namikaze said as he brushed the canvas of the tent's opening aside and walked in. "General Hatake sent me to check on you. You nearly died."

"Why am I here then?" Naruto asked. His voice was no louder than a whisper.

"The medics' tent is full," Minato replied. "They were able to spare a medic to see to you though. Do you know how much poison you were hit with?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Each needle had some kind of poison that was potent enough to kill a grown man in such a small quantity. You were hit by about ten needles," Minato said, looking at his friend seriously. "Luckily, the poison was used in the Second Shinobi World War, and Lady Tsunade of the Sannin created an antidote. If not for that antidote, you'd be dead."

Naruto smiled and said, "Even if I had died… it would have been worth it."

Minato shook his head at his friend's statement. "I appreciate that you saved Kushina from that attack, but sacrificing your life for hers isn't necessary."

"It's what any Leaf ninja would do," Naruto replied with a small smile. "Plus, we're family, aren't we? Maybe she'll actually consider me to be worthy of the Uzumaki name if I keep it up."

"There's no need for that. I already do."

Naruto turned his head and looked past Minato at the feminine voice. Standing behind his friend was Kushina Uzumaki.

"Minato, I need to speak to Naruto alone," Kushina asked, looking at the older blond as she spoke to the younger one. "Can you give us a few minutes?"

Minato hesitated for a second, but he nodded his head. "There's work to be done anyways. General Hatake was asking for volunteers to collect the bodies."

"The bodies?" Naruto asked faintly.

Minato nodded. "We lost a hundred men. It's estimated that the Sand ninja were killed to the last man though."

"We lost one man to ever ten the Sand lost then?" Naruto asked. He did not like the thought of half of his comrades dying, but it was a relatively good thing to only lose that many men.

"Yeah, but that's mainly because you took out about five hundred Sand ninja. Some of our men started calling you 'the Wind Dragon' and 'the Army Killer,' but General Hatake brought that to a stop very soon," Minato explained. "You certainly won't earn a moniker any time soon though. There were no witnesses left alive, after all." He noticed the look Kushina was giving him and suddenly cleared his throat. "I'll be heading out now."

With that, Minato departed and Kushina approached Naruto.

Fighting through the pain, Naruto sat up and looked at Kushina.

"Why did you save me?" Kushina asked. Her voice was quiet, but it was filled with strong emotion that rang out clearly to Naruto. It seemed that she was truly conflicted by his actions.

Naruto frowned at the question. "I thought I explained it. We're comrades… and family," he said, looking in her eyes with determination. "You can hate me for being alive instead of the family that you knew when you were little if you want. That doesn't mean that I will ever turn my back on you though. As long as my heart still beats, you will never come to harm. That's a promise… and I never go back on my word."

Kushina was struck speechless by Naruto's words. What could she say in response to that? She truly did not know.

"I don't have time to just sit around here though," Naruto said as he slid on the mat so that his feet were hanging off of it. "I need to see the battlefield."

Much to Kushina's surprise, Naruto landed on his feet and did not make a sound. The look on his face made it clear that he was in pain.

"You're suffering from severe chakra exhaustion," Kushina said, not wishing to see Naruto hurt any further. "That technique you used… you shouldn't use it if it uses up so much of your chakra."

Naruto's next action shocked Kushina even more.

He started laughing.

"That clone that I sent to attack the Sand ninja had half of my chakra. That wall that it created used up a quarter of my clone's chakra. The rest of its chakra went into the other clones that it created," Naruto said once he regained control of his vocal chords. "I used less than half of my chakra in that Wind Dragon Jutsu. The only reason that I'm so low in chakra is because I overdid it. And I still have more chakra than I did when I showed up in the village. Don't try to tell me that I'm suffering from chakra exhaustion, because this is nothing."

Kushina was beginning to see just what kind of person was standing before her. She seemed to have a bad habit of wrongfully making assumptions about people. She had considered Minato to be flaky and weak when she first met him. And as far as she had been concerned, Naruto had been a worthless excuse of a person.

The person before her was not worthless by any means though. He was strong of character and had a Will of Fire that burned stronger than anyone that she had ever met. In addition to that, he was powerful.

"I hope we talk to each other again soon," Naruto said as he walked past her. "I'd like to become friends. I'll understand if that can't happen though.

With those words, Naruto left Kushina in the tent by herself.

* * *

"The Battle of Bloody Rivers… an apt name," Naruto said as he stood at the western opening of the camp about half an hour later.

The ground where the battle had taken place earlier that morning was stained red by the blood that had spilled.

'I'm the one that stained the ground with their blood,' Naruto thought. It was his final jutsu that had actually stained the ground with blood. Finely cutting humans into such small pieces… that was what the Wind Dragon Jutsu had done. Such an action could not be performed without spilling a large amount of blood.

"Kushina told me you were up."

Naruto glanced over his shoulder and saw Mikoto Uchiha approaching him from behind.

"You're Kushina's friend, right?" Naruto asked, still looking over his shoulder. He saw her nod before he returned his gaze to the battlefield. "What do you want?"

Mikoto kept walking until she was standing to his right. Once there, she said, "I wanted to apologize to you for the way I treated you since you showed up. I was being unfair to you, as was Kushina."

"Shut up," Naruto said simply, stunning her. As she was stunned, he turned to face her. "I don't give a shit how you treated me. I don't give a shit how your friend treated me. That's in the past, and we're in the present. We're all Leaf shinobi. We're all comrades. So before you try to make amends, stop yourself. I don't need to hear apologies. You're doing it for yourself- not for me."

Much as Kushina was earlier, Mikoto was baffled by Naruto's words. She recovered much quicker though. That did not mean that she could say anything about it though.

"Well said, Naruto," Sakumo Hatake said as he approached them from behind. "Mikoto, I am going to speak to Naruto alone. Go help the others."

Seeing that she had no choice, Mikoto walked away as quickly as she could.

Once she was out of earshot, Sakumo asked, "How in the hell are you still standing? You have less chakra than anyone in the camp right now."

Naruto gave him a grin at that. "I keep food pills on me. I took a few once I was outside of the tent. That's the only reason I was able to walk here without collapsing."

Sakumo sighed. "Food pills are dangerous. You shouldn't take them when you don't need them."

"The life of a ninja is dangerous," Naruto said as he gestured to the crimson splattered battle field. "I'll take my chances with a few food pills. They're better odds than the ones we were up against earlier."

Sakumo found himself nodding before he realized what he was doing, which caused him to let out a deep sigh. "Fine… I won't try to stop you from doing it in the future."

"Smart move," Naruto said with a grin of satisfaction. "Now, we need to talk."

Naruto immediately thought that he was on a role. For the third time since waking, he had stunned someone with his words.

"I don't want you to press the issue of my promotion when we get back," Naruto said simply.

"How in the hell did you know that I was going to try to get your promoted?" Sakumo asked in further surprise. "And why the hell don't you want me to press the matter?"

"You're predictable," Naruto said with a small laugh. "But anyways, I don't want you to press the matter because the Hokage would give in."

"And that's bad how?" Sakumo asked. He was starting to see the boy before him as an enigma.

"No one but you and the men here trust me right now," Naruto said with a heavy sigh. "I've learned certain things lately. Amongst those is the fact that promoting me to full jonin based on my first battle is going to rub certain people wrong. We can't have instability in the village, and that will definitely happen if I'm promoted to jonin once we get back."

Though Sakumo would have liked to tell Naruto that he was not such a big deal as to do that, he found himself agreeing with the blond. Naruto would be the subject of skepticism and distrust for a little while longer at the very least.

"And you expect no one else to try to push the matter?" Sakumo retorted after a few moments.

"Why would anyone else push for it?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "I did exactly what was expected of me. As a special jonin in the field of wind style ninjutsu, why wouldn't I have an incredibly devastating wind jutsu? Why wouldn't I use said jutsu against the enemies of the Leaf? Why wouldn't everyone think that you ordered me to do it when you were right next to me, out of earshot of the others, when I used it? No, they won't push it."

Sakumo's eyes narrowed as he looked the blond over carefully. "You are nothing like Lord Hokage said you were."

Naruto chuckled at that. "Lord Hokage doesn't know anything about me, and neither does his ANBU. I kept secrets from them, despite the fact that he had me watched so long," he said. "I spent three months with nothing to do but sit in an empty house and six months doing chores. For someone as active as I used to be, that's a life changing experience."

Sakumo nodded absently as he thought about what Naruto said.

"Well, look at the bright side… we'll be doing a lot of sitting around. We just took out a tenth of the Hidden Sand's total forces. They won't be coming at us anytime soon, especially with the war just started, them down a kage, and with them fighting the Hidden Rock Village."

"I hope so," Naruto said with a sad smile. "This type of thing shouldn't be a common occurrence… not even during war."

Sakumo had to agree with the blond there.


	11. Return Home

**10. Return Home**

Five months had passed since the Battle of Bloody Rivers had been fought, and the survivors of the aforementioned battle had just arrived back at the Hidden Leaf Village about an hour earlier.

Two men were sitting in an office with a single desk between them. One man looked to be in his sixties, though he could not have been any older than fifty. The other man was nearly twenty years younger.

The names of the two men were Hiruzen Sarutobi and Sakumo Hatake.

Removing the pipe from his mouth, Sarutobi looked into the younger man's eyes. "Tell me, Sakumo… how did it happen?"

Sakumo took a deep breath. "You want to know about the Battle of Blood Rivers."

There was no question in Sakumo's words.

"Yes, I do," Sarutobi replied simply. "Your written report seemed… farfetched."

"It wasn't," Sakumo said firmly. "The chunin level sensors that were sent to aid us were incapable of seeing past a rather high ranking genjutsu. Only someone of my skill was able to see through it. It was because of that that we were unprepared for the assault by a thousand Sand ninja."

"Surely you overestimate," Sarutobi said with narrowed eyes. "You wouldn't be sitting here before me if a thousand Sand ninja attacked you."

"The heir of the Yamanaka clan was certain that the count was more than nine hundred but less than twelve hundred. I'm sure that his count was accurate," Sakumo said dryly. "I came up with a plan quickly. The plans that we had prepared fell through because of their swapped strategies and larger than expected forces. One of my special jonin added onto the plan by sending some wind style shadow clones to assault their forces."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at that explanation. He knew that Sakumo only had one special jonin stationed to his camp.

"That attack actually took out about a tenth of their forces, so we switched to using long ranged ninjutsu while they recovered and continued to charge," Sakumo continued, unfazed. "We quickly engaged them in a free-for-all type of battle. I lost focus on most of my men at that point, but I did see something interesting."

Sarutobi leaned forward in interest.

"Naruto Uzumaki put himself between a barrage of poison needles and Kushina Uzumaki," Sakumo said, looking the older man in the eyes. "I learned three things when that happened."

Sarutobi looked surprised for a second, but he was a master of keeping his calm. "What did you learn?"

"First off, I learned that Naruto is a true Leaf shinobi and would gladly put his life at risk to aid a comrade," Sakumo said. His eyes narrowed and his voice became dangerous as he continued. "Secondly, I learned that Kushina Uzumaki is a jinchuriki. The Nine-Tails is the only possible tailed beast she can contain too. That reminds me… why in the hell did you not tell me that a jinchuriki was in my fucking army?"

"Sakumo, you weren't supposed to find out," Sarutobi said as he leaned back in his chair. "No one was supposed to know."

Sakumo's eyes still held coldness to them as he spoke again. "The third thing that I learned is that Naruto Uzumaki is an army killer."

Sarutobi's eyes widened at that proclamation. An 'army killer' was a term used by the top brass of the village. It described an individual like Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the Sannin. Alone, they could deal with an entire army. It made them invaluable.

"Naruto told me that he used the Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu at one percent of its true power in training. Apparently, he did not want to destroy the training grounds," Sakumo said with a small laugh. "He used it at one hundred percent of its true power during the Battle of Bloody Rivers. Did you hear the reason they called that battle by that name? It's because his jutsu stained the ground with the enemy's blood. When we left, the ground still had a red tint to it."

Sarutobi frowned at that. He had seen the jutsu when Naruto had practiced it. To know that it was so seriously underpowered… that was worrisome indeed.

"Naruto suffered from chakra exhaustion after killing well over three hundred Sand shinobi from it. The very large dose of poison that he was hit with only helped incapacitate him," Sakumo said as he folded his hands on the desk before him. "There is no doubt about it. He is a true army killer. I forbid him from using the jutsu at full power again until it is perfected though. His body was injured as a result of the massive amount of chakra that was released from his body so quickly."

"That's good," Sarutobi said as he opened a folder on his desk. "It seems that your report was completely accurate after all, which makes things complicated."

"Don't have him watched again," Sakumo said seriously, surprising Sarutobi again. "He is loyal. I'll vouch for him. Hell, I'll keep an eye on him if you want me to. I do not want him to be the subject of ANBU watchers again though. That will only make him suspicious of you."

Sarutobi slowly nodded. "Very well then… if he betrays us, it is on you."

"He won't," Sakumo said with a small smile.

Minato Namikaze entered the chain link gate that stood before the third training ground. His sandals left low cracking sounds as he walked upon the dry ground.

His eyes were trained on the blond in the center of the training ground.

Naruto seemed to have his eyes shut, and chakra was slowly leaking out of his body, enveloping him. Suddenly, the chakra stopped and began to flow to his right hand. After several moments, dense, blue chakra covered his right hand in a shroud.

And then, the chakra dissipated.

"Shit, why can't I pull it off?" Naruto asked aloud.

"Think fast," Minato called out.

Naruto turned just in time to see a water balloon flying at him. It was clear that Minato had thrown it at him. With that in mind, Naruto caught the balloon with both hands, careful not to pop it in the process.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked curiously. "I thought you'd be within your girlfriend."

Minato chuckled in response. "You, my friend, are ridiculous. My girlfriend is… wait for it… a girl. And girls like to go shopping when they've been away for a while. Thus, Kushina and Mikoto are occupied." He folded his arms in front of him as he looked at Naruto with his usual smile. "And we, being the guys that we are, must do what is habitual as well."

"Training," Naruto said with a grin of his own.

"Training," Minato agreed as he unfolded his arms and removed another water balloon from a seal at his hip. "I'm going to teach you to use my most prized creation, the Rasengan."

Naruto eyes widened considerably at that. He had considered the possibility, but he had dismissed it all the same.

"Are you serious?" Naruto asked.

"Quite," Minato replied. "Jiraiya-sensei mastered the jutsu the day that Lord Hokage declared war. It's only fair that I offer the jutsu to my best friend now that my teacher has learned it."

"Why didn't you offer it sooner then?" Naruto asked with a light hearted laugh.

"We had responsibilities in the Land of Rivers. That's why no one trained why they were there," Minato explained. "Besides, I doubt you'll master it anytime soon."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the last part.

"Now, the Rasengan is a three-part jutsu. The first part is rotation. This step is mastered by popping a water balloon with chakra," Minato explained.

Pop!

Minato's eyes widened as the water balloon in Naruto's hand suddenly exploded, spraying water all around him. The older blond's face and shirt were wet.

The older blond suddenly cocked his head sideways with a smirk plastered to his face. "You, my friend, are being ridiculous," Naruto said, quoting his friend's earlier words.

Minato rolled his eyes, though he was secretly impressed.

'Things will be interesting, it seems,' Minato thought as he prepared to start Naruto on the next step.


	12. A New Mission?

**11. A New Mission?**

Naruto's eyes immediately opened as the sound of footsteps approached his tent.

As he rubbed his eyes, he wondered what exactly was going on. He knew it to be no earlier than midnight and no later than three in the morning, which made his mind dart from possibility to possibility.

A year and a week had passed since Naruto arrived in the Land of Rivers under Sakumo Hatake's command. As such, he was once again deployed, but this time, he was under new leadership.

A week earlier, Naruto had left the village alongside Minato to serve at the main camp in the Land of Rain under Jiraiya of the Sannin.

It had not been easy to reach the camp though.

The shinobi of the Hidden Rain Village were known for three things. The first was for creating their own jutsu. The second was for assassination techniques. And the third was for genjutsu.

Those three things combined had enabled the Hidden Rain ninja to ambush the group that Naruto and Minato had been traveling with.

After fighting through the ambush, they had managed to arrive at the camp hours before it was assault by two hundred Rain ninja.

Naruto still shuddered at the thought of the battle with the Rain ninja. Two hundred Rain ninja were harder to take down than a thousand Sand ninja, it seemed. That was mainly because they did not have the power to directly assault the camp. Instead, they had used genjutsu and employed guerilla warfare.

As those thoughts crossed his mind, he slid to a sitting position on the standard-issued cot in his small, forest green tent. His feet found their way into his sandals, and he was standing up moments later, just in time to look completely alert as someone entered the tent.

"General Hatake?" Naruto asked in shock as Sakumo Hatake entered his tent. The man was supposed to be in the Land of Rivers again, which made his presence completely unexpected for Naruto.

"I'm not a general right now," Sakumo said with a ghost of a smile upon his face. "Please call me Sakumo. If you must give me a title, make it 'captain.'"

"What's going on, Captain Sakumo?" Naruto asked, earning a small frown from the man.

"I've been relieved of duty as the general in the Land of Rivers. A veteran from the First Shinobi World War- a man named Torifu Akimichi- has taken that post while I've been assigned a mission," Sakumo said with the utmost seriousness conveyed in his tone. "It's an infiltration mission in enemy territory."

"Surely that's a classified mission," Naruto said with narrowed eyes. "Why are you telling me about it?"

"I was told that I can bring any three subordinates that I want on the mission, and you're one of them," Sakumo said, looking Naruto in the eyes. "I'd feel a lot better about the mission if you'd agree."

"When do we leave?" Naruto asked immediately.

Sakumo grinned. "That's good to hear. Get your equipment together. I'll be waiting on you outside of your tent. We'll meet up with my other subordinates on the way there."

* * *

Later, five miles northwest of the camp, Sakumo and Naruto were crouched in a circle with Shibi Aburame and Tsume Inuzuka. Sakumo had a map in his hands.

"Our mission is simple. We need to travel twenty miles to a key fortress," Sakumo said with the utmost seriousness conveyed in his voice. "This fortress contains supplied for the armies of the Hidden Rain Village. If we destroy this fortress, they will have difficulty obtaining rations and basic ninja tools."

"It's heavily guarded," Naruto said as he listened carefully. "No one would be willing to leave such a key base without a few hundred guards."

Sakumo nodded. "That's why we've been chosen for this mission," he explained. "Ideally, we would sneak in without any confrontations and plant paper bombs in key points."

"You brought me because of that jutsu," Naruto said immediately.

Sakumo nodded, making Shibi and Tsume widen their eyes. They had been at the Battle of Bloody Rivers, after all.

"I hope you don't need to use the Wind Dragon Jutsu, but it might be necessary," Sakumo said with a sigh.

"It's actually called the 'Great Wind Dragon Jutsu now,'" Naruto said with a ghost of a smile upon his face. "It's too powerful to be equated with the Water Dragon Jutsu or the Earth Dragon Jutsu, so I've changed its name. It's registered as an S-rank kinjutsu by Lord Hokage, after all.

Sakumo did not respond to that. He merely shrugged and traced a red line on the map with his finger. "This is the path that we'll take. We'll all need to be careful though. We're getting closer to the Hidden Rain Village than we should. The fact that we've been divided into such small numbers should be an indicator of how much caution we must use," he said as he looked at his subordinates. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, Captain Hatake," Shibi said.

"Yes, Captain Sakumo," Tsume said.

"Yes, Sakumo," Naruto said.

"Good…," Sakumo said as he folded his map. "Let's head out."

* * *

About ten miles into their trip, Tsume raised a hand to halt them.

They were in a small clearing that was located in one of the densest forests in the Land of Rain. It was naturally raining, of course. It always did in the Land of Rain, it seemed.

"Captain, I smell someone," Tsume said cautiously. "It's a fresh smell… I think an enemy is nearby."

"Are you sure?" Sakumo asked carefully.

Tsume spared Sakumo a glance. "I'm positive. It would be easier if Kuromaru was here to help me out, but he's back home recovering."

Naruto quickly grabbed the hilt of Sakumo's tanto, withdrew it, and parried a barrage of kunai that came at him from behind.

The sheer speed of Naruto movement and the fact that he managed such a maneuver left-handed surprised all three jonin. They knew him to be right handed.

Naruto quickly handed the sword to Sakumo hilt first as he withdrew a kunai from his holster with his right hand.

As soon as Sakumo took his sword back, Naruto took a second kunai into his left hand.

"Captain, Tsume is asleep," Shibi suddenly said.

Naruto glanced towards the Aburame and saw that he was holding a limp Tsume Inuzuka.

"Genjutsu," Naruto said immediately. Seeing the slight confusion on Sakumo's face, Naruto added, "Shinobi of the Inuzuka clan are too heavily ruled by their senses. They're weak to genjutsu."

"I know that," Sakumo said as he took survey of his surroundings. "I'm just surprised that you knew that."

Three dragons made of water suddenly formed, using the rain as a source. They came at the Leaf shinobi with incredible speed and power.

Naruto normally would have used his wind wall to defend against them, but it was a flat wall of wind. It would have only effectively defended against one.

Instead, he used the Body Flicker Technique and appeared outside of the range of the attacks. He had to have faith that his comrades could do the same.

Sakumo managed it.

Shibi and Tsume did not.

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the bug user and the unconscious Inuzuka get sent flying by the force of the jutsu. As soon as he saw it, water formed around him.

'This is the Water Prison Jutsu," Naruto thought, mentally cursing the situation. From his spot, he could see that Sakumo had been caught by one too.

Three Rain ninja appeared in front of them in their normal garb. The middle one had an aura of authority and arrogance that Naruto could detect immediately.

"The White Fang and a piece of trash… both caught in those jutsu, eh?" he said mockingly. "Keep them in their prisons until they suffocate. After that, you can bring their corpses to the rendezvous point."

With that, he commanded his two unoccupied associates to grab the unconscious Aburame and Inuzuka and follow him.

Once they were gone, Naruto closed his eyes. He idly noted that it was the most he could do in the prison.

'I can trust Sakumo,' Naruto thought as he used the water prison to his advantage. His eyes suddenly snapped open. They no longer held blue irises. His irises had turned yellow, his pupils had become square, and red pigmentation surrounded the far corners of his eyes.

Naruto physically turned his head and looked at the Rain ninja that was holding up his water prison.

The blond shot his hand out of the prison as quick as lightning and clutched the Rain ninja's throat in his left hand. A single twist of his wrist broke the Rain ninja's neck before the water prison dropped or the Rain ninja even reacted.

Naruto dashed towards the Rain ninja holding Sakumo's water prison intact and slammed his fist into the man's chest. With the strength that Sage Mode gave him, he caved the man's chest in.

Sakumo breathed heavily as the water prison was released.

Looking up at his savior, Sakumo asked the one question that was most expected of him. "You're a Sage like Jiraiya, aren't you?"

Naruto shook his head. "I've mastered this form; he hasn't."

Sakumo nodded his head, not really caring about the answer. "We need to save Shibi and Tsume."

"No," Naruto said, looking his captain in the eyes. "You need to save them. I need to finish the mission."

Sakumo looked shocked at the proposal. "We need to work together."

"I can tell you where they're at, but I don't think they'll be in any condition to move quickly at all. This mission needs to be done though," Naruto said with a heavy sigh. He suspected that this was _the mission_. If at all possible, he'd prevent the man from being disgraced. "I believe that you can take them out on your own. There are only three of them. And as it turns out, I'm the perfect person to take out the fortress up ahead on my own."

As much as Sakumo hated the idea of splitting up, he knew that it made sense.

"You'll probably be reprimanded for letting the mistrusted special jonin do the mission solo, so prepare to catch hell," Naruto said with a forced smile.

"I'll catch hell, and I'll throw it back," Sakumo promised.

Naruto allowed a small but real smile to appear on his face. "About my Sage Mode…."

"It's a secret that I'll keep until the day that I die," Sakumo vowed as he sheathed his tanto.

"Thanks for that," Naruto said as he closed his eyes and drew some more natural energy in. He did not want his form to dissipate after all. "They are already five miles east from here. They must have been in a hurry."

"I'll keep an eye on their tracks. I'm good at tracking," Sakumo said as he took off running.

Naruto nodded and sped into the direction of the fortress with all the speed that he could muster, which was rather impressive as a result of Sage Mode.

* * *

It took an hour for Naruto to reach the edge of the forest, a quarter of a mile away from the fortress, though that was because he had taken his time. Going too fast would have needlessly exhausted him.

The fortress was clearly made of stone and appeared to be solidly built. It had no less than ten floors in it- more if it had floors extending underground.

'I'll have less than five minutes to pull this off,' Naruto thought as he took a deep breath and began to draw natural energy in once again. 'I'm going to be exhausted afterwards, but oh well….'

As soon as he was in Sage Mode, fully charged, again, Naruto used the Body Flicker Technique to cover half of the distance to the fortress.

The instant that he reappeared, he raised his right arm outward. Chakra surged through it with the force of a river. The same thing happened to his left arm when he did the same with it.

He then brought them together in the dog hand sign, beginning a long chain of hand signs that moved so fast that only a Sharingan wielder could have counted them all.

The jutsu now used one hundred hand signs in rapid succession. In addition to that, the jutsu had been redone in ways that most people were unaware of.

The sequence ended with both hands clapped together as if Naruto was praying. He was covered in a powerful shroud of chakra by the time, seeing as how more and more chakra leaked out with each hand sign.

Naruto noticed that the Rain ninja guarding the fortress were not attacking him at all. It seemed that they were going to attempt to be defensive.

'Foolish,' Naruto thought as he released the chakra into his jutsu.

The sight that the Rain ninja were presented with instilled fear.

The funnel of wind that formed around Naruto was as wide as a tornado, and it filled the entire clearing on Naruto's side of the fortress.

In short, the dragon that was formed as a result was larger than Manda, and it was not constrained by gravity.

Naruto was no longer in Sage Mode at this point. He had poured seventy-five percent of his chakra into the jutsu, and it had been amplified by the natural energy flowing within it.

"Sage Art: Great Wind Dragon jutsu," Naruto said hoarsely.

There would be no survivors from the sheer devastation that the dragon caused as it crashed into the fortress.

The fortress would be nothing more than gravel when it was done with it.

* * *

Six hours later, Naruto walked into a cave where he had sensed that Sakumo was located at.

He immediately saw Tsume and Shibi asleep.

"Is it done?" Sakumo asked quietly.

"It's done," Naruto said as he sat down against the cave wall. In moments, he was asleep.


	13. A Hero's Return

**12. A Hero's Return**

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, was sitting in his office a few weeks into the second year of the Third Shinobi War.

He idly looked at the clock, curious as to when he would be receiving visitors.

A week earlier, he had given Sakumo Hatake a mission to infiltrate and destroy a key fortress in the Land of Rain.

Two days earlier, Sakumo had sent a message via hawk to inform him that the mission was a success and that they would arrive two days after the hawk was sent to give the mission report. He had also made it clear that two of his comrades for the mission were injured.

A knock came to his door, breaking him from his musings.

"Come in," Sarutobi said as he straightened himself in his chair.

Sakumo Hatake walked into the office, followed by Naruto Uzumaki.

"Your companions are already at the hospital, I take it?" Sarutobi asked, looking at Naruto.

"Yes, they are," Naruto replied calmly. He was finally getting used to the old Hokage.

"Tsume Inuzuka has a broken leg, whereas Shibi Aburame is dealing with a mild case of poisoning and a broken arm," Sakumo elaborated as Naruto shut the door.

"Sit down and tell me what happened," Sarutobi said as he gestured to the two chairs that he had set up on the other side of his desk.

"About ten miles into our trip, Tsume detected enemies, though it was just in time for Special Jonin Uzumaki to deal with a barrage of kunai that were thrown at him. During the attack, it seems that a genjutsu specialist utilized a particularly effective technique against Tsume, incapacitating her," Sakumo said as he took his seat. "Immediately after she was incapacitated, three shinobi used the Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu against us. Naruto and I managed to evade it using the Body Flicker Technique, but Shibi and Tsume did not."

As Naruto took his seat, he said, "As soon as I saw that Shibi was unable to get away with Tsume, water formed around me. I immediately knew that it was the Water Prison Jutsu. Captain Sakumo was caught by the technique as well."

"Three more Rain shinobi appeared before us, and they taunted us before giving orders to the shinobi that captured us to let us drown. Once we were dead, they were to take back our corpses," Sakumo said as he folded his hands in his lap. "The three Rain shinobi left immediately, and they took Tsume and Shibi away. It was their intention to interrogate them. Once they left, Naruto managed to get free from his water prison and freed me from mine."

"How did he free you?" Sarutobi asked.

"He killed the ninja holding up my prison. How else would he free me?" Sakumo asked rhetorically, making Sarutobi nearly face palm.

"How did he free himself then?" Sarutobi asked with a sigh.

"Did you know that you can't move your head in a water prison?" Sakumo asked sarcastically. "Maybe you should ask the person you're talking about."

Sarutobi knew that Sakumo was rarely blatantly disrespectful to his superiors. It generally meant that he was very annoyed, which was understandable since Sarutobi had just asked the man about someone that he respected greatly.

"Okay," Sarutobi said as he looked at Naruto. "How did you get free from your water prison?"

"I have a lot of chakra," Naruto said dryly.

Sarutobi had a feeling that Naruto was hiding something, but he could tell that he had not been lied to.

'Stop being so paranoid,' Sarutobi thought. 'Why does it matter how he broke free from it? It's not exactly an unheard of feat. Many members of the Hyuga clan have managed it, for one.'

"Continue," Sarutobi said as he looked at Sakumo.

"Once the shinobi that captured us were dead, Naruto and I came to an agreement. Being the more proficient tracker that I am, I tracked down the other Rain shinobi and took them out before I brought Shibi and Tsume to safety. Naruto destroyed the base," Sakumo said, preparing for the Hokage's reaction.

"You did what?" Sarutobi asked as he slammed his hands down on the desk. "Sakumo, you knew how important that mission was. How could you entrust that mission to a mere special jonin?"

"He's only a special jonin because you have to stroke the ego of the god damned clans and the elders of the village!" Sakumo answered as he slammed his hand down on the desk and looked into the God of Shinobi's eyes. "Naruto is the only one who could have single handedly accomplished the mission, and I was not about to abandon my comrades."

Sarutobi let out a deep sigh as he broke eye contact with Sakumo. "Sakumo, I don't disagree with your actions. Hell, I applaud them. The mission was a success, and there were no fatalities. I overreacted, but I will still have to reprimand you for this. You violated the acceptable code of conduct as a captain of a squad on an S-ranked mission by putting the success of the mission solely upon the shoulders of a special jonin."

"Feel free to suspend me," Sakumo said uncaring.

"You're suspended until your next scheduled deployment then," Sarutobi said with one more sigh, noting that Sakumo was pleased. He then turned to Naruto. "And as for you… you went above and beyond the duties of your post. It seems I have no choice… in response to the recommendations of two of the generals of this war and your accomplishments in the most recent mission, I promote you to the full rank of Jonin."

Naruto's eyes widened considerably at that, as did Sakumo's. Neither of them had expected that.

"Don't look so shocked," Sarutobi said as he looked between them. "Yes Naruto, I don't trust you. I doubt I'll ever be able to trust you completely. I trust you enough to allow you to become a jonin in my village without forcing you to tell me where you really came from though. That should be enough."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage," Naruto said as he lowered his head into an awkward bow. Bowing while sitting down was always awkward though.

Sarutobi nodded. "I trust that you will uphold the responsibilities of your post?"

"Do you need to ask?" Naruto countered.

"I suppose not," Sarutobi said with a slight inclination of his head. "Very well then, you two are dismissed. It seems that neither of you will actually be required to do anything until your next deployment."

With that, Naruto and Sakumo left the office.

Each one had something different in mind for the rest of the day.

Sakumo had every intention of finding his son and telling him that he'd get to stick around for a while, which meant father-son bonding.

Naruto had every intention of heading to the hospital to check on his comrades.

* * *

Naruto had spent about half an hour at the hospital before he returned to his apartment. The doctors had told them that they would both be fine, but they had been asleep when he stopped by. Apparently, they had been rather exhausted.

As soon as Naruto arrived at his apartment and shut the door, he felt his cheeks become damp.

Raising his right hand to his right cheek, he realized that he was crying.

'It isn't pain that I feel,' Naruto thought with a small smile.

Naruto had been sixteen when he was sent backwards in time as a result of his conflict with Madara, which meant that he had been in the past for two years. Two long years of holding a tighter rein on his emotions and hiding the truth of who he was had changed him.

'I guess I didn't change completely,' Naruto thought as he was overwhelmed by emotion. He had finally received a little more trust by the Hokage, he was fully trusted by Sakumo Hatake, his father was his best friend, and he had finally obtained the rank of jonin. That was enough to overwhelm a man, he decided.

'I still have more to do though,' Naruto thought as he straightened and wiped the tears from his eyes. 'Madara's still out there… but I can't worry about him until this war is over. I guess I'll just have to train like hell until then.' He took note of his sore muscles at that moment. 'I better put that off until tomorrow though. Tonight, I'll celebrate my promotion. Shame Dad's not here.'

With that thought, he went to take a shower and get ready for the coming night.


	14. Changes

**13. Changes**

A few hours after Naruto's shower, he entered his favorite place in the world, the Ichiraku Ramen Stand.

As he entered, he smiled wryly as he spotted Teuchi. The ramen chef was only a few years older than him in the present timeline.

The image of a brown haired girl flashed in Naruto's mind at that point, reminding Naruto of the man's daughter from his timeline.

'This always happens,' Naruto thought in annoyance. The one thing that prevented him from actually befriending many of his comrades was his memories of them and their children from his timeline. It was why he tried to be distant to most people.

Naruto definitely could not stand the temptation to be close to Minato Namikaze, despite that.

'Maybe it helps that I only met the man once before waking up in the past,' Naruto thought as he took a seat.

Clearing his throat, he said, "I'll take one large bowl of miso ramen with roasted pork fillet."

"Put it on my tab, and I'll take one too."

Naruto froze at the voice. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Mikoto Uchiha entering the ramen stand.

Seeing that the situation appeared to be personal, Teuchi ducked into the back to make them their ramen.

"Why would you want to buy me ramen?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

Mikoto waited until she took the seat next to him before she answered. "I heard that you received a promotion to jonin. Congratulations," she said as she looked him in the eyes. "I know your favorite food is ramen, so I figured you'd show up here sooner or later. Minato told Kushina, and Kushina doesn't keep secrets very well."

"What's your real reason?" Naruto asked skeptically.

Mikoto sighed at that. "You rejected my last apology because I was not sincere. I only offered it to you because it was expected of me,' she said, not breaking eye contact even for a second. "I now offer it to you sincerely. I truly am sorry for the way I treated you originally. It wasn't right for me to treat you that way."

Though his expression softened a bit, the skeptical look remained in his eyes. "What caused the change in heart?"

Mikoto looked sad as she thought back. "The resentment and distrust that I felt towards you were caused by what Kushina said about you. Do you seriously think I would change my opinion about you the same day that Kushina did? It was her life that you saved. Though that did change my opinion about you a little, it wasn't enough,' she explained with a sad smile. "I've spent a great deal of time talking to Minato, Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza. I've also spoken with Lord Jiraiya and General Hatake. They've shown me a different side of you… a side I'd like to see for myself."

Though the thought of choosing to reject the apology that was offered to him had crossed his mind, Naruto suppressed that juvenile urge.

When it came right down to it, Naruto realized that it would be in his best interests to accept her apology. He came to the realization that the only people presently in the village that he was on good terms with were Sakumo and Teuchi. He supposed that he could have made a decision to bond more with Tsume and Shibi, but something stopped Naruto from making such a decision.

He could see Sasuke in Mikoto. It was from her that he obtained his looks.

Naruto had known all along that the woman before him was the mother of Sasuke Uchiha and the wife of Fugaku Uchiha.

'Not yet though,' Naruto thought idly. From what Minato had told him, Fugaku and Mikoto were just friends. That certainly could not have changed recently either. After all, Mikoto had opted to serve to consecutive deployments, whereas Fugaku had not. Thus, they had not seen each other in a little over six months.

The final thing that factored into his thought process was that he did not want to wait over five months for a friend to return to the village. The prospect of making a new friend was rather appealing anyways.

"I accept your apology," Naruto said as he looked forward.

It was easy to see that Mikoto was surprised by the look on her face that was barely visible out of the corner of Naruto's eye.

"If you're going to treat me to ramen, I have to pay you back though," Naruto said idly. "How about we train together tomorrow?"

Mikoto's eyes widened at that suggestion.

"Aren't you worried that I'll copy your jutsu?" Mikoto asked. That was one reason that most people preferred not to train with members of the Uchiha clan.

Naruto snorted at that suggestion. "I wouldn't recommend copying my jutsu. I highly doubt that you have enough chakra to use any of my good ninjutsu effectively."

Mikoto looked as if she was slapped by that comment. "I'm an Uchiha. We don't typically have a small amount of chakra."

"Be that as it may, I have more chakra than the Sannin combined," Naruto said seriously. "I'm not boasting when I say that my jutsu are too chakra intensive for you to use. I'm being completely honest."

Mikoto looked shocked by the notion of anyone having as much chakra as Naruto was indicating, but she did not believe that he was lying.

'Just who are you, Naruto Uzumaki?' Mikoto wondered as Teuchi brought their ramen.

Years later, when Naruto and Mikoto looked back, they would think of that day as the day that their friendship began, though it was slow at the start.


	15. The Land of Grass

Author's Note: There comes a point in a fanfiction writer's life where they think "Damn it... why do I have to write this." That's where I am.

For those of you informing me that I shouldn't rush this because it won't turn out as well, I say "So?"

I derive as much enjoyment from writing this as I would from writing an essay arguing the pros and cons of operating an energy plant that utilizes exothermic  
reactions vs endothermic reactions. In short, if it looks like it's becoming a chore for me, then that's because it is.

I'm only finishing this for my readers who have stuck through this and remained behind me the entire time. To you, I say thank you.

On to Chapter 14...

* * *

**14. The Land of Grass**

Approximately eleven months had passed since Naruto became a jonin of the Hidden Leaf Village, which meant that he was on his third deployment of the war.

Much like the last two times, Naruto was traveling alongside Minato Namikaze through the forests of the Land of Grass, which were relatively large and often sported massive mushrooms.

Unlike the last two times, Naruto and Minato were headed to a relatively minor camp.

Naruto still could not wrap his mind around the concept of being stationed in one of the minor camps. It was fairly common knowledge that they rarely saw combat. And though Naruto did not cherish the thought of another bloody battle, he did know that his abilities made him very useful in such a battle.

He inwardly sighed as he and Minato arrived at the camp, which was a fourth of the size of the previous camps that they had been stationed at. It also had a three foot tall wall surrounding it, which would have been purely ineffective against shinobi.

"Come on," Minato said, seeing Naruto's slight hesitation as the camp came into view. "The captain's no doubt waiting on us."

A loud explosion suddenly rocked the entire camp, along with the ground around it.

"What in the hell was that?" Naruto asked as he took off running towards the source of the explosion, which had come from within the camp.

He did not need to look behind him to see that Minato was following after him closely.

Possibilities of what could have happened ran through their minds as they ran through the walkway between the tents, but none of their thoughts prepared them for what they saw when they actually reached the center of the camp.

The tent that should have been there for the captain of the camp was gone. Where it should have been, the ground was covered in ashes.

"What in the hell happened here?" Naruto asked as he crouched down.

"It looks like we've been attacked."

Naruto glanced over his shoulder and saw Yoshino- Yoshino Nara in Naruto's time- lying on the ground. She was slowly rising, and it was clear that she was the one that had spoken.

"Did you see anything?" Naruto asked quickly.

"Yeah," Yoshino said as she finished rising to her feet. "I was chosen as the Captain's assistant, and I was just bringing some papers to him when his tent exploded. The two other jonin were inside it at the time. Like them, I'd be dead if I had actually managed to enter the tent when the explosion occurred."

"Shit," Minato said as his fists clenched. The fact that Minato had said such a word surprised Naruto and Yoshino. "Naruto, we're the only two jonin in this army."

Naruto sighed at that statement. That was a very bad thing. Two jonin would be ineffective against an army.

Several smaller explosions were heard to the far right side of the camp.

"Minato, go help them out over there," Naruto said as he pointed towards the source of the explosions. "Yoshino, go gather the men of the rest of the camp and bring them here. It looks like I'm the captain now."

Though both were surprised by Naruto's words, but they complied without question.

As soon as they were gone, Naruto removed a kunai and began to draw a few things in the dirt directly in front of him.

* * *

Five minutes later, Naruto was standing before thirty chunin with Minato at his right.

"Minato, you told me you mastered the jutsu you've been working on. Are you sure?" Naruto asked as he looked at Minato carefully.

In reply, Minato removed an unusual looking kunai that actually had three blades on it, though two of them were much shorter than the main blade. "I'm sure that I've mastered it."

Naruto nodded. "Very well then," he said as he allowed a small smile to form. "We're going to split up into two groups because we will be attacked from two sides. Minato, these chunin will be under your command. I will be doing what I need to do solo."

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Minato asked in shock.

"You will need their help," Naruto said as he turned his back to them. "I'd hate for anyone to get killed by being too close to me when I get serious."

With that, Naruto left.

Minato immediately saw the drawing on the ground and took note of what it was of.

He turned back to the chunin and said, "My friend has studied the strategies of Sand and Rock thoroughly. He's right when he said that they would assault us on two fronts. I can only assume that he knows what he's doing."

He quickly removed a scroll from his hip pouch and unrolled it on the ground before him. Thirty seals were shown on it immediately. With a single hand sign, he unsealed thirty scrolls from it.

"Come and get on scroll each. Inside of each scroll, I have sealed away ten kunai like the one I'm holding. If you throw these kunai at the enemy, I'll be able to finish them off," Minato said as he took in a deep breath.

"Are you sure that that is wise, Captain Namikaze?" Yoshino asked. "No man can take out an army by himself."

"Then I am no man," Minato replied simply. With a last gesture to the scrolls on the ground, he said, "You have your orders. When you have complied, follow me."

No one could have predicted that the battle that would be fought shortly after that moment would be the battle in which two legends were born.

* * *

As soon as Naruto was away from the others, he stopped for a moment and entered Sage Mode with less than a minute of preparation. Before he had been sent back in time, such a thing was even easier, but now it was something that just barely stood in the realm of his ability.

'They haven't changed locations yet. That's good,' Naruto thought as he felt the chakra signatures of his comrades going to confront the bulk of the Rock ninja, just as his drawing on the ground would have told Minato to do so. 'It's a good think he's so damned observant.'

Naruto quickly sped towards the second, smaller group of Rock ninja.

'Smaller… that's a good one,' Naruto thought as he rolled his eyes. The smaller group consisted of fifty Rock ninja. The larger group consisted of seventy five. Either way, they were both fairly large. 'How should I take them out? The Great Wind Dragon is too damned destructive to use here, and I can't risk having someone survive. It does have weaknesses that I can't have anyone discover. It is one of my most powerful jutsu, after all.'

It did not take Naruto long to reach the Rock ninja that were hiding in the nearby woods.

The strategy that the Rock ninja were using was very simple. A large attacking force would strike the camp and continue assaulting it until the Leaf ninja were forced to flee. As they fled, the smaller force of Rock would use earth jutsu to sink the ground in around the Leaf ninja. Such a jutsu would crush the Leaf ninja quite efficiently.

'That strategy is old, just like their kage,' Naruto thought idly.

As Naruto appeared directly in front of the woods, he quickly formed the bird hand sign drew in a deep breath.

'Sage Art: Dust Storm Jutsu,' Naruto thought as he exhaled a very large, widespread cloud of wind chakra laced dust from his mouth.

The effect was instantaneous. His presence was obscured while his enemies remained within his senses. After all, he was still in Sage Mode.

Quickly extending his hands, he thought, 'Dance of Wind Blades.'

With a single wave of his hands, he released ten blades of wind- one from each finger.

Though his aim was not perfect, it easily cut down a good portion of the woods around them.

He immediately went through a few hand signs immediately afterwards and said, "Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu."

Unlike the Great Wind Dragon Jutsu, the version that he used was on a much smaller scale and had more of a pressure damage effect, as opposed to the larger version's cutting effect.

The dragon sped through the dust cloud, using Naruto's sensory abilities to find each Rock ninja and overwhelm them.

A single one of the Rock ninja had begun to flee even before the trees were cut down around them. That was the only ninja that Naruto had allowed to flee.

It was time for Naruto to stop hiding behind anonymity. A witness that had seen displays of wind jutsu alone would do him well, after all.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Yoshino asked as she looked at Minato. Ten of the blond's special kunai was lying on the ground before her.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Minato said reassuringly as he carefully stabbed eight of his kunai in the ground around of him and held one in each hand.

Once everything was prepared, Minato said, "They have started their charge."

He spoke truthfully. It was at that moment that all of the Rock ninja began to charge towards them.

The distance between them was only a hundred yards when Minato said, "Throw the kunai now. Aim them at about fifty yards."

As his words were spoken, he began to do the exact same with the kunai in hand and around him. The instant that they were all thrown, Minato removed two ordinary kunai and wielded them back-handed.

"They're wondering why we missed so badly… and so am I," Yoshino said as she took note of the confused looks on the charging Rock shinobi's faces.

"Don't blink… even for a second," Minato said as he undid his hip pouch carefully.

A second later, Yoshino turned as she heard the hip pouch strike the ground. Minato was no longer there. Returning her attention to the charging ninja, Yoshino saw that half of the Rock ninja were dead, and more joined them by the second as subtle flashes of yellow occurred throughout the mass of charging Rock ninja.

The display struck Yoshino speechless, along with every chunin that had thrown the kunai.

The battle between Minato and the army of Rock ninja had lasted less than fifteen seconds. At that moment, he was standing in the center of the field of corpses. His kunai were soaked with blood.

He looked down and saw a single Rock ninja that was struggling to move.

"Let him flee."

Minato's eyes widened considerably at Naruto's voice. It was unexpected to hear his best friend at that moment. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that he was not mistaken about who had spoken either.

"Let him tell them why you should be feared," Naruto said as he stepped to Minato's right. "Let him tell them why any shinobi that they sent to attack us will die without effort."

Minato simple nodded and turned his back to the fallen Rock ninja.

"The ground seemed to get bloody every time we fight," Naruto commented idly as he followed Minato, unconcerned about the only living Rock ninja.

* * *

And thus, the moniker of _the Yellow Flash_ was bestowed upon Minato Namikaze and the moniker of _the Wind God_ was bestowed upon Naruto Uzumaki.

In the coming weeks and months, Naruto and Minato were officially made co-captains of the camp in the Land of Grass by order of Hiruzen Sarutobi.

By the end of their deployment in the Land of Grass, they were revered as two of the most powerful shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village, behind the Hokage, Sakumo, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru.

* * *

Author's Note: As a result of some of the recent reviews, I've decided to move up the completion date of this story. I don't want to write this, and many of you clearly don't like the way it's going, so I'll let it end sooner.

Have a good day/night.


	16. The Battle Begins

**15. The Battle Begins**

"Today, history will be written," Sakumo stated as he stood in the center of his tent with every jonin under his commanded crowded in the structure. "We have obtained new information. The hidden villages of Sand, Rain, Rock, and Lightning have entered a temporary alliance, and they are bringing their forces here to attack us."

Gasps of shock were heard around him, but he did not pause for long.

"It has been confirmed that the Third Tsuchikage, the Third Raikage, the Fourth Kazekage, and Hanzo of the Salamander are heading here with armies as we speak. It is estimated that they will here within the hour," Sakumo said as he looked at his subordinates around him. "The information was received at the Hidden Leaf Village already. As such, my peers, Orochimaru and Jiraiya, are headed here as we speak. Hopefully, we will be able to hold out until they arrive."

"General Hatake, we have the Yellow Flash here. Surely we won't lose," one of the jonin said.

Minato looked surprised at that statement. He was still getting used to his new found fame.

"I'd agree with you if the Wind God was here," Sakumo said as he shook his head. "I do not know if we can succeed, even with everyone that is presently here, along with Jiraiya and Orochimaru."

That bit of information was most alarming.

"Will Naruto be here?" Minato asked.

Sakumo looked at the blond and shook his head. "Naruto Uzumaki is the general in charge of our forces in the Land of Hot Water. There's no way that he could make it here in time."

Minato sighed at that statement. He had missed his friend, and he knew how handy Naruto would be in such a situation.

He glanced at his girlfriend's best friend at that moment. It was no secret that after their deployment in the Land of Grass, Naruto and Mikoto had become involved in a romantic relationship, much to the ire of the Uchiha clan. His fame has prevented anyone from actually attempting to stop the relationship from progressing though. If Minato did not know any better, he would have thought that the Uchiha clan feared what Naruto would do if they had tried to stop their relationship.

Sakumo's voice penetrated his thoughts, reminding him that they were in a meeting.

"This camp is obviously built in front of a cliff, in case none of you noticed. As such, they can't come at us from all sides. As a result of this, we will be marching towards them with our forces to prevent them from using earth jutsu to use the cliff as a weapon," Sakumo explained. "Now, gather your forces and meet me at the front of the camp. We need to be prepared. After all, we are marching to face a force of approximately four thousand foreign ninja."

Those last words sent chills down all of their spines- well most them, at least. Danzo Shimura was obviously not spooked by it.

The camp only consisted of two hundred-fifty Leaf shinobi. The prospect of them facing so many shinobi was most certainly alarming.

* * *

An hour later, two hundred-fifty Leaf ninja were facing four thousand enemy ninja with five hundred yards between them.

Sakumo Hatake, Danzo Shimura, Torifu Akimichi, Yagami Uchiha, Minato Namikaze, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, and Choza Akimichi were standing at the front of the army of Leaf shinobi.

Hanzo of the Salamander stood at the forefront of the Rain army atop Ibuse, his primary summon. A man with red and green eyes stood off to the side of him.

Raikuro- the Third Raikage- stood at the forefront of the Cloud army.

Onoki of Both Scales, Roshi of the Lava Style, and Han of the Steam stood at the forefront of the Rock army.

Tetsukaze- the Fourth Kazekage- stood at the forefront of the Sand army, alongside Chiyo and Ebizo, the Honored Siblings.

The situation was clearly tense, as was seen when the three attacking kage and the village leader exchanged looks.

With a single hand motion from each commander, the armies of foreign began their charge. The aforementioned commanders and the other famous shinobi did not move at all though.

"Remember the plan," Sakumo said evenly. Even he was nervous at the sight before him. He would not have been as nervous if he had understood the power that Minato Namikaze wielded.

The Leaf ninja quickly began to through ordinary looking kunai at the charging enemy ninja.

The attacking ninja thought that it was just bad aim, much like the Rock ninja had thought nearly a year ago when they attacked Naruto and Minato's forces.

"Don't hold back on your jutsu," Danzo said evenly as he glanced at the various shinobi behind him. "Sarutobi has informed me that young Namikaze is quite efficient at evasion."

Minato rolled his eyes at the comment, but he was prepared. After all, he had applied seals to every kunai that his comrades had thrown.

As they charging armies crossed the line of kunai, Minato disappeared.

Yellow flashes streaked through the armies of attacking ninja as the Leaf ninja began to launch jutsu of every element off like they were shuriken.

The only Leaf ninja that were not using jutsu in the assault were the ones that stood at the forefront of their army. After all, they knew that the armies were not the problem. The purpose of the armies was to cancel themselves out.

It took two minutes for the nearly four thousand attacking shinobi to die. Coincidentally, that was about the same time when over two hundred of the Leaf ninja completely ran out of chakra.

"They sent genin and chunin to attack us, didn't they?" Sakumo asked in a low voice.

Rather than verbalize an answer, Danzo nodded his head. The look in his eyes said that even he disagreed with such an act.

"They are sending out their jinchuriki," Sakumo said as he narrowed his eyes. Han and Roshi had just been sent forward.

"I believe that Kushina Uzumaki and Mikoto Uchiha can handle them," Danzo said with a nod.

Nodding in agreement with the elder shinobi Sakumo motioned for them to go forward.

Immediately, Kushina entered her initial jinchuriki form and dashed forward with Mikoto following closely after her.

Minato reappeared next to Sakumo at that exact moment.

"Minato, run to the camp and find some appropriate containers," Sakumo said with a sidelong glance. "We're going to need to seal away the four-tailed and five-tailed beasts."

Minato disappeared immediately after those words were spoken. His relationship to Jiraiya and Kushina made him know exactly what was required for such a task.

"How in the hell did that happen?" Inoichi asked under his breath.

Sakumo turned his attention to the battle. Han was unconscious twenty yards away with Mikoto standing over him, and Kushina was easily dodging lobs of lava.

"The Sharingan must be useful," Sakumo commented dryly.

Danzo just smirked. He loved when his plans were successful.

It took roughly thirty seconds for Kushina to incapacitate Roshi with a seal and toss him next to Han. She appeared to be a little tired though.

Minato reappeared moments later with two rather large, stone jars.

"Minato, take them away from here, kill them, and seal the tailed beasts away. You'll have Kushina and Mikoto to help," Sakumo quickly said.

Nodding, Minato laid hands on Roshi and Han. Mikoto and Kushina immediately laid hands on him, and they all teleported to the top of the cliff that overlooked the battlefield.

They did not notice Onoki's eyes watching them as they reappeared on the top of the cliff.

* * *

"I want you to attack," Hanzo said as he looked to the man off to the side of him. "You're supposed to be very talented, aren't you, Kakuzu?"

The Immortal Bounty Hunter nodded his head and quickly dashed forward. The prospect of collecting on Sakumo Hatake's bounty was quite appealing, after all. Danzo Shimura and the current Ino-Shika-Cho had nice bounties as well.

"Shadow Paralysis Jutsu," Shikaku quickly called out as he formed the ram hand sign. His shadow shot towards Kakuzu, but the bounty hunter was able to jump out of the way rather quickly.

"Partial Body Expansion Jutsu," Choza said as he appeared to Kakuzu's left and punched him with a large fist. He waved his fist with a grimace on his face when Kakuzu was sent flying away. It felt like he had punched stone.

"You are annoying," Kakuzu said as he dashed forward and punched Choza center mass. The punch lifted him from the ground and sent him flying back unconscious. He quickly spun around and landed a hit on Inoichi, who had attempted a sneak attack. He then proceeded to through the unconscious Yamanaka at Shikaku, knocking him down.

"Striking Shadow Snakes,"

"Needle Jigoku,"

At that moment, Kakuzu was covered in snakes and had a quick barrage of needles flying at him. His earth style armor protected him from the needles, but he was still bound tightly.

"He has some kind of earth style armor," Shikaku said as he looked at the origin of the attacks.

Jiraiya and Orochimaru had arrived.

"That's good to know," Orochimaru said as he withdrew his Sword of Kusanagi. He quickly dashed forward and sliced Kakuzu into a dozen pieces with the incredibly sharp sword. The fact that he applied his wind chakra to it made it even more effective.

"Jiraiya, Minato is in the process of sealing away two tailed beasts," Sakumo said as Orochimaru killed Kakuzu.

Jiraiya nodded and followed the direction that Sakumo pointed to.

Orochimaru turned his attention to Danzo at that point. "I've been eager to have a rematch with Hanzo again.

Danzo nodded his head in acknowledgment of the statement. He knew that Hanzo would be the most difficult one for them to take out.

"I think it's time that I get involved in this fight," Sakumo said with a heavy sigh as he saw Ebizo and Chiyo approaching.

* * *

Author's Note: I wasn't planning on writing an author's note at all until the last chapter, but reader response has changed my mind.

Let me make one thing clear. I did not shorten this story because of negative reader response alone. It was mainly because I just can't get into Naruto  
fanfiction at all anymore. In addition to that, the planning of my novel is complete, so I'm very eager to move on to it.

But anyways, thank you for all of the reviews. And if you haven't noticed yet, I have two links up on my profile. One goes to my blog and one goes to my  
website. If you're interested, feel free to visit them.

Back to Consequences, keep in mind that I gave the Kazekage and the Raikage names. This is because using the titles annoys me.

On one final note, next chapter, I will focus on Sakumo and Minato, along with answering the big question. "Will Naruto take part in the battle?"


	17. Long Awaited Battles

**16. Long Awaited Battles**

"Those are the ten puppets of Monzaemon Chikamatsu, aren't they?" Sakumo asked as ten unusual puppets danced in front of Chiyo of the Hidden Sand Village. Her brother, Ebizo, held a katana in his hands firmly.

Without answering, Chiyo sent the ten puppets towards Sakumo with all of her speed, but Chiyo was no match for the White Fang.

Open shock was visible on Chiyo's face as five of her ten puppets were destroyed within moments.

"You have guts," Sakumo said as he quickly sidestepped out of Ebizo's range as the older man tried to attack him from behind. "Few would challenge me in kenjutsu." With that, he decapitated Ebizo with a single stroke.

Filled with fury, Chiyo charged at Sakumo. She had just seen her brother die, after all.

She died just as easily as her brother did.

With the Honored Siblings dead, he glanced back to Orochimaru, Danzo, Torifu, and Yagami. With a hand motion, he got them to appear at his side.

"It's time to fight Hanzo," Sakumo said. He then noticed something strange. "Where's the Tsuchikage?"

His comrades became aware that only the Kazekage, the Raikage, and Hanzo were standing in their positions.

Shaking his head, Sakumo said, "Keep an eye out for him and the other two kage."

* * *

"Am I interrupting something?" Onoki asked with his arms crossed.

Minato looked at the Tsuchikage and cursed. They had only had time to seal away the Four-Tailed Monkey thus far.

"I will have your head, Yellow Flash," Onoki stated. "I don't give a damn about your two companions."

"Then fight each other," Jiraiya said as he appeared on the cliff. "Minato, I'll supervise the sealing. Teach the old fart what you can do."

With a nod, Minato used the Body Flicker Technique to appear in front of Onoki and throw him off the cliff, after which he teleported to the ground below with the Flying Thunder God Jutsu.

One might think that watching two legends like Minato Namikaze and Onoki fight would be entertaining and fun… it was not.

Onoki kept trying to capture Minato in the barrier that was formed around his Dust Style techniques while Minato simply teleported outside of their range. It was a game of cat and mouse, really.

The fight finally reached a conclusion though.

"I've destroyed all of your special kunai. You can't escape now," Onoki said as he used his technique once again. He knew that he could follow Minato with the technique, so simple speed would do nothing against it. "You were a worthy opponent."

"As were you," Minato said as Onoki started to activate his technique. "Good-bye."

The cube of Onoki's Dust Style technique suddenly teleported to surround Onoki as it activated.

Moments later, it disappeared, revealing that Onoki was no longer in the world of the living.

Minato dropped to his knees, panting in exhaustion. Using the seal that he had placed on Onoki when he threw him off the cliff to teleport the jutsu had been difficult.

A small smile formed on the Yellow Flash's face as he thought about the fact that Onoki had essentially killed himself.

"Die Namikaze!" Tetsukaze said as he appeared behind Minato and brought his kunai down towards the blond's skull.

The kunai never made its mark, but Tetsukaze was suddenly hit by a chakra covered fist that resembled the Butterfly Bullet Bombing technique of the Akimichi clan.

As the Kazekage flew and hit the ground, rolling, everyone looked to see who had acted.

Standing a foot from where Tetsukaze had originally been standing was the last person they had ever expected.

Clad in the standard attire of a Leaf shinobi with a flak jacket on was Naruto Uzumaki, known as the Hidden Leaf's Wind God.

"What in the hell was that jutsu?" Minato asked hoarsely.

Naruto smiled at his friend's question. "That's my Chakra Hammer… it's based off of the Akimichi clan's Butterfly Bullet Bombing. It contained five percent of my chakra."

Minato nodded for a moment. "How in the hell are you here? You're supposed to be in the Land of Hot Water."

"I'm fast," Naruto said as he began to approach the downed Tetsukaze. He saw Raikuro appear next to the Kazekage halfway there.

"Greetings Lord Raikage… Lord Kazekage," Naruto said with a slight inclination of his head. "Honored Raikage, I regret to inform you that your eldest son is the only survivor of the forces you sent to attack my camp."

Raikuro's eyes widened at that proclamation.

"I left him unharmed, though his ego has suffered greatly. I killed the thousand men that you put under his command by myself," Naruto said with a light smile. "My name is General Naruto Uzumaki, renowned as the Wind God… and I'm going to kill you both today."

"Die!" Raikuro said as he was covered in black lightning and attempted a frontal attack on Naruto.

The blond's eyes suddenly shifted as he entered Sage Mode and held out his left hand. A blue orb formed in it instantly. It then took on a white shuriken-like form. It shifted from Rasengan to Wind Style: Rasengan and then to the Rasenshuriken within a matter of seconds.

As Raikuro struck the Rasenshuriken with his black lightning charged fist, he was consumed by a massive orb of wind chakra.

"That was a close one," Naruto said as he appeared at Minato's side immediately.

"What in the hell…?" Minato mumbled.

"That's my most powerful jutsu," Naruto said with a smile. "The Third Raikage is dead."

His smile disappeared as he saw Tetsukaze rise to his feet. "I'm sorry Gaara,' he whispered under his breath as he raised his other hand to the air. A second Rasenshuriken formed in it, and he threw it straight at the man that would have been Gaara's father in another few years.

With one fell swoop, Naruto had killed the Raikage and the Kazekage, and he did not even appear to be winded.

As he exited Sage Mode, he saw that the battle between Hanzo and the Leaf ninja that had engaged him was over with. Hanzo of the Salamander was dead.

He then glanced over his shoulder and saw Jiraiya, Kushina, and Mikoto walking towards them with two large jars in their hands.

"The Third Shinobi World War is over," Sakumo said as he looked around them at the carnage of the battle.

"That's correct," Danzo said as he looked at Naruto with an impressed eye. "You'll have to tell me how you killed two kage with such little effort."

Naruto simply shrugged as he turned his eyes towards his girlfriend once again. "You'd be surprised to hear what all I can do with just a little effort."

* * *

Author's Note: Yeah, I completely skipped Hanzo's fight, and I didn't write the fights very detailed at all. That ties in with the whole "I can't get back into Naruto fanfiction" thing. That's also why the last chapters of this story will be quite short.

Just so you know, there are only two chapters left to be written. The epilogue is already finished, so chapters 17 and 18 are all that need to be written.

On another note, the new chapter of Naruto (Chapter 537) is already posted on MangaStream.


	18. Four Years Later

**17. Four Years Later**

At the age of twenty five, Naruto Uzumaki was walking down the street, headed home to his wife, Mikoto Uzumaki.

He smiled at the thought of her. He still thought there was a bit of irony to the fact that he had fallen in love with and married his best friend's mother, but he normally kept thoughts of his original timeline separated from his normal thoughts.

Thinking about his wife made him thankful for the facts that he was one of the three most famous shinobi in the Elemental Nations and the present Jonin Commander. It was those facts that had allowed him to marry an Uchiha and have her change her surname to his without a single complaint from that noble clan.

'I wonder what Dad's doing,' Naruto thought as the image of Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash and the Fourth Hokage, flashed through his mind.

That thought became more prevalent as a massive chakra appeared out of nowhere.

'What in the hell is that?' Naruto asked, feeling the Nine-Tails chakra suddenly appear in a massive quantity. It was at that moment that he realized something that terrified him.

It was currently the tenth of October.

Naruto immediately created a shadow clone and sent it after Sarutobi before he entered Sage Mode. As soon as he entered Sage Mode, he detected Minato, Kushina, the Nine-Tails, and Madara Uchiha.

'I better not be late,' Naruto thought as he began to move forward as fast as he could. The fact that he had been so blind-sighted had him completely worried and scared. He should have been planning for that day, after all.

* * *

Minato was breathing heavily as he jumped back from his opponent, who he believed to be Madara Uchiha. The man was certainly skilled and had an impressive space-time ninjutsu. There was no way for him to disable that space-time ninjutsu and defeat Madara on his own, unfortunately.

A small smirk formed on Minato's face as he sensed his best friend.

Suddenly, a barrage of kunai flew at Madara. The ancient Uchiha tried to use his space-time ninjutsu to make them pass through him harmlessly, but they all struck him as they would strike any other person.

"Why can't I teleport?" Madara muttered as he felt the kunai strike him.

"You're in a barrier that completely restricts space-time ninjutsu," Minato said with a small laugh as he pointed to the ground at the black marks on it. "It's too late to do anything about it though."

With that, Madara was hit by a Rasenshuriken.

"I've been waiting to do that for nearly a decade now," Naruto muttered under his breath as he jumped down to the ground from the tree that he had been standing in.

"Naruto, we need to confront the Nine-Tails now," Minato said as he caught his breath.

"Let's go then," Naruto said.

With that, Minato grabbed Naruto and teleported them both to the former's safe house where Kushina and the unnamed baby were resting.

As soon as they arrived, Minato had Naruto stay with them while he teleported the Nine-Tails there.

Naruto, realizing what was going to happen as soon as Minato reappeared with the Nine-Tails could not help but feel fear fill him.

That was when something unexpected happened.

* * *

Shock crept over Naruto as he found himself standing in the sewers that made up his mindscape. It had been nine years since he was last there.

"You've grown."

Naruto turned around to find the source of that voice and felt his throat tighten as he saw Itachi Uchiha standing in his mindscape.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked in shock. "You were dead."

"When I bestowed my power upon you all those years ago, I placed an imprint of my mind within you," Itachi said as he allowed a small smile to grace his lips. "It was my power that conflicted with your Sage Mode and Madara's teleportation jutsu and sent you back in time. It is also by my power that I offer you a way to bring about the Nine-Tails' defeat."

"I'm listening," Naruto said with narrowed eyes.

"The power that I gave you has changed you in many ways. It also seems to have forced my personality to rub off on your own to a small degree. But more importantly, the power that I gave you has allowed me to temporary take control of your body if you allow it," Itachi said as he looked into Naruto's eyes. "If you allow it, I can use my Mangekyo Sharingan through you. With it, I can activate Susanoo and use the Sword of Totsuka to seal away half of the Nine-Tails for all eternity."

"What will it cost me?" Naruto asked immediately.

"You will lose the light of your world," Itachi said with a sad smile. "Being a non-Uchiha, this single use will permanently blind you. That's not that big of a deal for you though. After all, eyes can be transplanted."

"I accept," Naruto said.

* * *

The next thing Naruto was aware of, his eye sight was mostly faded, and a much smaller Nine-Tailed Demon Fox was standing before him.

'You will pass out soon, and your eye sight will fade completely when you do,' Itachi explained. 'Tell them what you wish to.'

"That was amazing," Minato said astounded.

"What do you expect… from your son?" Naruto asked with a chuckle. He had a feeling that he needed to reveal the truth to them, much as he did to Mikoto a month before he proposed to her. "This is going to sound insane, but I'm your son from the future."

With that, Naruto began to tell them the truth about them. He finished the tale seconds before he passed out, but he passed out before he could hear their responses.


	19. Not Dead Yet

**18. Not Dead Yet**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes to a white room.

'Wait… I should be blind,' Naruto thought as he slowly sat up. He could still see everything perfectly clear though. It made absolutely no sense to him.

"Naruto, you're awake!" Mikoto exclaimed as she looked through the door. She ran up to him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.

Over her shoulder, Naruto could see Kushina Uzumaki walk in. She appeared to be grieving, though Naruto did not understand why.

"What happened?" Naruto asked softly.

"Minato summoned the Death God and sealed the other half of the Nine-Tails away," Kushina whispered. "He requested that you be given his eyes."

Naruto felt his jaw drop at those words. He could not believe what she was saying. He had used Susanoo to seal away half of the Nine-Tails' chakra so that it would not be necessary for his father to give his life again.

"Minato loved you, Naruto. He loved you like a brother. The prospect of you being his son… well, it made him truly happy. He said that any man would be proud to have a son like you," Kushina said sadly as she walked up next to him. "I am proud that you were my son in another time too, so I can understand his decision to return the light to your world and free the world of the Nine-Tails in its entirety. I am sad to see him go, but I do understand his reasons."

"I see…" Naruto said, trailing off as he looked out the window. "Did he say anything else?"

"He said that he wanted you to reconsider the offer that you rejected… whatever that means," Kushina answered. She sounded curious as she spoke those last words.

"Please find the Third Hokage and tell him that I've reconsidered," Naruto said as he took a deep breath and stood up from the bed with Mikoto's help. "Tell him that I'm willing to be named as the Fifth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village like he asked me to when the war ended."

It was clear that his words shocked Kushina and Mikoto. Neither of them knew of the offer.

"I was offered the position of Fourth Hokage before Minato was, but I turned it down. I was never meant to be the Fourth Hokage," Naruto said with a heavy sigh. "I know what I am supposed to do now though. It is my destiny to be named as the Fifth Hokage, and so I shall be."

At the time, Naruto had no idea how true his words were.

Later that day, Naruto Uzumaki was named as the Fifth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village.


	20. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Following his succession as the Fifth Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki named Sakumo Hatake as the new jonin commander.

Despite not being trusted fully in his early years as a Leaf shinobi in the Third Shinobi World War, Naruto was soon revered as great of a Hokage as Hiruzen Sarutobi was, though he eventually managed to surpass the God of Shinobi in that aspect.

This was largely a result of the Hidden Leaf Village staying at peace for the entire span of four decades that Naruto held the position of Hokage. The only villages that could have stood a chance at lasting more than a short while against the Leaf Village under Naruto's control were the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Mist Village, but neither of those villages were too eager to face off against a man that killed two kage in a single battle and was largely responsible for the death of the strongest of the nine tailed beasts.

Within five years of obtaining the position of Hokage, the Hidden Leaf Village had come to be in possession of the one-tailed beast and the seven-tailed beast through alliances, leaving the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Mist Village as the only foreign shinobi with tailed beasts.

Within a decade of becoming Hokage, Naruto accomplished the closest thing to world peace that anyone had ever imagined in his world. The Hidden Leaf Village had become so powerful that it could quell any conflict in the Elemental Nations almost instantaneously.

Through him, the First Hokage's dream of peace had been accomplished, and it had been managed alongside the Uchiha clan, which had been content to be bonded to the greatest Hokage in history just as much as the Senju clan was.

Naruto and Mikoto Uzumaki both lived long lives and had two children- both boys. The first was obviously Sasuke Uzumaki, and the second was born six years after the Nine-Tails' Attack. His name was Minato Uzumaki, named after the fallen Fourth Hokage and friend of both parents.

Kushina Uzumaki never remarried, though she did move in with her son from the future and his wife. Her only child was the boy that Minato had named upon his dying breaths, Gaara Namikaze.

Though they were different in that time period, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Neji Hyuga were all born, along with Rock Lee and Tenten.

Hana Inuzuka, on the other hand, was never born for reasons that Naruto had never considered.

It always brought a smile to Naruto's face when he saw the members of the Leaf Ninja Eleven and saw that they were mostly the same as from his time. Naturally there were difference, but there were more similarities than anything.

The ever present smile was last seen on his face on his deathbed. Mikoto followed soon after.

Naruto Uzumaki was ninety-seven years old. Mikoto Uzumaki- formerly Uchiha- was one hundred years old.

He survived fifteen years after passing on the title of Sixth Hokage to the child of Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuhi.

* * *

Author's Note: And there it is. Consequences is done. The only future update on this story will be to announce the publication of my first novel, but that won't be until July.

Here are the final stats of this story:

Words- 36k

Chapters- 20

Reviews- 645

Hits- 123k

Favs- 812

Alerts- 721

Thanks to everyone who has stuck it out the entire way, and I apologize to everyone for the incredible drop in quality in the end. I found that I literally could not write anything more/better for Naruto fanfiction anymore. I'm thankful that this is done.

I hope everyone has a nice day/night.

PS. Those who are very upset with me can state so, but I disabled alerts, so I won't be informed of any more reviews. It's quite distracting.


	21. Original Fiction Update

I bet you were surprised to see an update of any sort be posted on this, especially after I said I was leaving fanfiction.

You see, I announced that I was going to start working on original fiction, and quite a few people wanted to know where they could read it, even after I revealed that I would be self-publishing.

Well, my first book, Through the Flames, has gone live. It's only available as an e-book for now through Amazon's website, along with Smashwords and B&N.

On my profile, I have links to the book on Amazon US, Amazon UK, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble.

Anyone who is interested in reading it can get it from either site fairly cheap.

And I'm sure that someone suspects that they won't be able to read if since they don't have a Kindle or a Nook. Well, that's not a problem. Amazon and B&N both have free reading apps. I've never really checked out the Nook apps, but I know there are Kindle apps for PC, Mac, Blackberry, iPod Touch, iPad, and Droid phones.

If you still don't won't to deal with an app, then feel free to check it out on Smashwords. You can get it in pretty much any format through Smashwords. You can even read it straight from the website if you do it.

Anyways, it's an epic fantasy novel and is the first book of a nine book series. I'll leave you with the blurb now.

_Caleb was just a simple hunter's apprentice. He wanted nothing more than a simple life and was content to live out the days of his life beneath the green bowers of the sun-dappled forest. But when he returns home to find his village massacred and his family dead, the whispered words of his dying father hurl him onto a path of blood and vengeance._

_In his epic quest for revenge, Caleb will discover that the mightiest of heroes, like the strongest of metals, can only be forged within the hottest fires and under the greatest pressures. His is a destiny which will forever change the face of Arcadia. It is a destiny that can only be reached in one way:_

_Through the Flames._

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Oh... by the way, I've decided to return to fanfiction.

It should be fairly unexpected, given the things I've said previously. I have my reasons though, so feel free to disregard any author's notes of other stories that contradict this.

Anyways... starting August 1st*, you can expect about two chapters of my newest story every week.

*I might start posting sooner than that. It really just depends. I want to write at least five chapters before I post anything. We all know how annoying it is when I abandon a fic a few chapters in.


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